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What Are Xenoestrogens?
Xeno is derived from a Greek word meaning ‘foreign’. Xenoestrogens are nonsteroidal elements that can mimic activities of estrogen in both males and females. Nonsteroidal means estrogen that is not naturally produced by an organism’s endocrine system.
Most people associate xenoestrogens with pesticides and plastics, but they also include mycoestrogens from fungi and phytoestrogens – ‘dietary estrogens’ from plants. Xenoestrogens are also referred to as Endocrine Disrupting Compounds (EDC) or environmental hormones.
When used intentionally as pharmacological estrogens, xenoestrogens can be beneficial like in the use of the contraceptive pill (ethinyl estradiol) or in use for estrogen replacement therapy in menopausal women. Being an element that acts like estrogen means an increase of the hormone in the body will mimic and possibility exaggerate or disrupt normal endocrine functions.
With the rate at which xenoestrogens are accumulating in the ecology, it’s becoming a health concern and significant environmental hazard since some xenoestrogens can find their way into food supply chains or into the body through contact as seen in some plastics.
Health Effects Of Xenoestrogens
Precocious Puberty: Is a condition where puberty – development of secondary sexual characteristics starts before ages 9 in boys and 8 in girls. Two U.S epidemiologic studies – “The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III) and the Pediatric Research in Office Settings (PROS)” showed an advance in sexual maturation in girls. The same has also been observed in Asia and Europe and exposure to environmental chemicals such as xenoestrogens is among the contributing factors.
Xenoestrogens Effects on Girls: Although estrogen is referred to as the female hormone, too much of it has severe physical and psychological effects. In the case of precocious puberty, the resulting growth spurt leads to rapid bone maturation causing premature distal epiphysis closure – greatly reducing adult height.
Precocious puberty has also been linked to gynecologic disorders such as adenomyosis, endometriosis, infertility and polycystic ovarian syndrome. Early sexual maturity in girls is associated with high-risk behaviors like unsafe sex, drug, and alcohol abuse.
Effects on Boys: High levels of estrogen levels in males is associated with severe effects on male reproduction system such as low sperm production, low testicular weight, a rise in testicular cancer, undescended testicles, and malformed reproductive organs. Xenoestrogens are also responsible for gynecomastia in males.
Xenoestrogens And Cancer
Estrogen is said to flare up or accelerate growth and severity of estrogen-sensitive cancers. Since xenoestrogens mimic the effects of estrogen, they are believed to fuel these cancers as well. Some cancers that xenoestrogens can influence include ovarian cancer, breast cancer, uterine cancer and prostate cancer.
Sources Of Xenoestrogens
Food Preservatives: Especially BHA (Butylated hydroxyanisole) has been observed to increase breast cancer growth rate. A Japanese study showed that BHA competed with Estradiol, a predominant form of estrogen in non-pregnant and non-menopausal women. Even though the preservative is used in low doses, it has cumulative effects with other estrogens.
Plastics and Plastic Additives: It has been found that plastics and plastic additives are major sources of xenoestrogens. A study in Germany found out that, of the 20 brands of mineral water that were tested, 60% contained xenoestrogens. Of the 20-bottled water tested, nine were in plastic, nine in glass, and the last two in composite. The study concluded that glass also contains xenoestrogens.
Lacquer Coatings in Food Cans: A study in 1995 was able to detect xenoestrogens that had leaked from the lacquer coating in canned vegetables to the liquid. It was concluded that bisphenol-A leached from the coating into the vegetables.
Common sources of xenoestrogens include and are not limited to:
- Pesticides and Herbicides
- Atrazine – the 2nd most popular pesticide globally and most used in the U.S.
- DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) – not popular anymore due to its impact on marine life and human health
- Dioxin – highly toxic chemicals – used in pesticides and bleaching of wood pulp
- Endosulfan – an insecticide
- Plastics
Other xenoestrogen sources
- Phthalates – plasticizers used virtually in all aspects of life such as in intravenous bags and tubing and cosmetics
- PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls) – banned, were used as insulating fluids and coolants
- PBB – (Polybrominated biphenyls) – banned, were used to make plastics, foams, and textiles harder to burn
- BPA (Bisphenol A) – used to make epoxy resins for lining food/beverage cans and manufacture of polycarbonate plastic
- Zeranol – banned – was used as an anabolic growth promoter in livestock
- Ultraviolet radiation protectorates found in sunscreens.
How Xenoestrogens Get Into The Body
Xenoestrogens get into the body mainly through the oral route, but can also be through absorption by the skin and nasal insufflation, especially during production of plastics. Xenoestrogens have also been found through contamination of dairy products such as milk – as in the case of animal feed contamination in Michigan (1973) and in fish due to water pollution by industrial waste.
How To Avoid Xenoestrogens
It is difficult to avoid xenoestrogens completely, but learning their major sources can help identify and avoid them. Also, regular visits to the doctors to check your estrogen levels, in both men and women, will help detect high estrogen levels early and embark on reducing them.
Effects of xenoestrogens are a controversial subject and total bans on all estrogen mimicking substances are impossible unless first a sustainable alternative to plastics is found. This is because plastics are used and required by everybody in day-to-day life.
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