Endocrine-Disrupting Contaminants and Their Effects on Reproductive and Developmental Health

Industrial revolution unleashed a vast variety of new chemical compounds into the environment. Over the past 60 years, more than 80,000 synthetic chemical compounds have been made, and recently more than 3,000 new chemicals are produced each year (Landrigan et al. 2002). Since the adoption of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the year 2001, the environmental and health impacts of environmental contaminants have drawn more attention from scientists, policy makers, industries, NGOs, and the general public. Without doubt these chemicals are ubiquitous and are widely dispersed in air, water, soil, and daily necessity. For the identi’cation and quanti’cation of all these contaminants, substantial labor and ’nancial cost are required. However, by the year 2000, less than 7% of the synthetic chemical compounds were tested for their chronic and developmental toxicity (Goldman and Koduru 2000).