French government pressures EU to take action on endocrine-disrupting chemicals

Monday, March 10, 2014 by: L.J. Devon, Staff Writer
Tags: endocrine-disrupting chemicals, French government, European Union

(NaturalNews) The modern-day consumer is inundated and assaulted by various endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Very little awareness exists. What are these chemicals doing to the human race as a whole? Expert health officials from the French government are pressuring the European Union to define these endocrine-disrupting chemicals and help raise awareness of the havoc they cause in destroying the human body's homeostasis.

Endocrine disrupters pose several silent risks to the human body

These endocrine-disrupting chemicals are basically limiting the human potential, to think, to reproduce and to ward off illness. These chemicals throw the endocrine system off balance, disrupting important glandular functions. Medical doctors only know how to send confused patients through various tests, diagnose their problems and prescribe them drugs that rarely get to the root cause.

One of the root causes of health problems people face today is the invisible war going on in the endocrine system -- the war on the hormone glands. This silent hormone war originates on many fronts; the pesticide industry, the plastic industry and the mainstream perfume and body care industries all unleash endocrine-disrupting chemicals into people and the environment. Consumers rarely understand how these chemicals disrupt their body's homeostasis.

It's a tough problem to fix, since many people use these endocrine-disrupting products on a daily basis; consumers are just unaware about the invisible dangers of how these chemicals accumulate in the body and restrict certain hormones from being produced. One of the clearest examples of endocrine disruption is evidenced by hysterectomies. Many times, hysterectomies are the medical system's response for women whose ovary glands struggle to keep producing a balanced amount of progesterone and estrogen.

Other common hormone imbalances are seen in men whose muscle and male body characteristics fail to form after the onset of puberty. The unbalanced androgen and testosterone hormone levels can completely stunt one's own gender development.

European Union under pressure to act on endocrine-disrupting chemicals

The European Union is under pressure right now from the French government. Calling on the EU to react urgently, French health officials report that public health is being challenged by the damaging effects posed by endocrine disruptors. They have cited higher financial costs that continue to plague the healthcare sector, because no action is being taken to limit or stop these chemicals from existing.

The committee has committed to new action as described in a December 2013 statement. The commission hopes to publish a new, comprehensive strategy to deal with endocrine disrupters, which includes public awareness and action. The committee said there is a need to publish a definition for endocrine disrupters based on the known hazards of these chemicals and not only "on the notion of potency as has been put forward by industry."

The committee aims to alert the public about metals like lead and mercury, which both disrupt the endocrine system. These metals are being called out right now in products tested at the Natural News Forensic Food Lab. Endocrine disrupters on high alert are phthalates, which are plastic softeners found in most plastic water bottles.

The chemicals used in household furniture and upholstery -- brominated flame retardants -- are also a hot topic of discussion for the committee. Furthermore, chemicals in perfumes, hair dyes, shampoos and other body care products are to be pinpointed for their endocrine-disrupting action. Also up for debate will be specific pesticides, which pervade agriculture, contaminating groundwater.

Genon Jensen, executive director at the nongovernmental organization Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), is also calling on the Commission to deliver and publish a strategy to eliminate endocrine disruptors from products as soon as possible.

The situation is so critical that Swedish environment minister Lena Ek told the commission that she will sue if they breach their promise to prioritize and classify these endocrine-disrupting chemicals for public awareness.

"To reduce unnecessary health problems and healthcare costs, we need swift progress on endocrine-disrupting chemicals policy so as to start reducing people's daily exposures to chemicals linked to chronic disease," she added.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.euractiv.com

http://www.innerbody.com

http://science.naturalnews.com