Environmental Research Foundation . . P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403 . .
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To subscribe, E-mail the words . . It is now known that some chemicals disrupt the endocrine system. In animals, and in humans, sexual characteristics are established at a particular point during development in the womb or egg. Samples of herring gulls from Lake Ontario collected in 1975 and 1976 showed cellular and anatomical changes in embryos and in newly hatched chicks that caused feminization of male chicks and overdevelopment of female reproductive organs. To test whether these sexual problems might be linked to the presence of the DDT, laboratory experiments were conducted in which Western gull eggs were injected with concentrations of DDT similar to those found in the Great Lakes environment.