The endocrine-disrupting plasticizers will stay with us for a long time

Abstract

Many synthetic chemicals are widely used in our daily products and they are in constant contacts with humans through many different routes of exposure. In addition to the toxic environmental pollutants known with diminishing usage, plasticizers, a new class of emerging chemicals, are becoming of human health concerns increasingly. Microbial degradation of plasticizers is generally known, but the toxicity and other effects on human and animals are less well understood, especially in terms of reproductive development and endocrine-disrupting activity. Their major impact to Earth is the large quantities of them used on a daily basis and close contacts with biota of the biosphere. Knowledge of their impact shall be focused more specifically on developmental and endocrine system of animals than mortality in traditional toxicology as an end-point to better assess the threats to the biosphere. New directions on this research topic are presented to advance new knowledge in the future research and development.