Hormonal Chaos

Scientific and Social Origins of the Environmental Endocrine Hypothesis

Hormonal-Chaos book cover image
A detailed description by a scientific and policy insider of an emerging theory and the response of the scientific and legislative communities.

The broader environmental endocrine hypothesis (EEH), is the subject of Hormonal Chaos, by Sheldon Krimsky, 2000. The premise behind the EEH is that chemicals mimicking endocrine hormones can bind to receptors and thus can cause health problems in humans as well as other animals. Krimsky shows how this hypothesis first developed within the scientific community, in large part as a result of the persistence and insight of Theo Colborn. While working for the nonprofit Conservation Foundation in the 1980s, Colborn formulated the EEH, linking together evidence from several disparate sources: deleterious effects on wildlife exposed to pesticides, defects in babies whose mothers took the estrogen substitute diethylstilbestrol (DES) and controversial claims that human sperm is declining in quantity and quality.

Sources and book reviews

  • Hormonal Chaos: The Scientific and Social Origin of the Environmental Endocrine Hypothesis, NCBI PMC1118410, British Medical Journal; 321(7259):516, BMJ 2000 Aug 19.
  • The Case of the Deformed Frogs, americanscientist, July-August 2000.
  • Amazon customer reviews.
On Flickr®
More DES DiEthylStilbestrol Resources

Have your say! Share your views