Precaution Principle: regulating Diethylstilbestrol DES, Endocrine Disruptors, Environmental Health

– Abstract –
” Rates of intersexuality, reproductive cancers, and infertility appear to be increasing. Many researchers suspect that a key role is played by endocrine disruptors – the industrial pollutants that mimic hormones and disrupt the endocrine systems that shape sexual development.
Yet, for all the concern raised by a flood of experimental research showing endocrine disruption in animals and epidemiological studies suggesting effects on human reproduction, the U.S. government has essentially failed to regulate these chemicals, retreating from a precautionary principle that would require caution in the use of potentially toxic chemicals. Debates in the 1930s and 1940s over the regulation of diethylstilbestrol (DES), the first synthetic estrogen and the first chemical known to act as an endocrine disruptor, show how political pressures, scientific uncertainty, and changing conceptual models of gender and health led to this retreat from precaution “.

Sources © Copyright 2004 by Environmental History
The Retreat from Precaution: Regulating Diethylstilbestrol (DES), Endocrine Disruptors, and Environmental Health by Nancy Langston
Professor of environmental studies and forestry

From the same author:
Toxic Bodies: Hormone Disruptors and the Legacy of DES

More DES DiEthylStilbestrol Resources

• DES studies on cancers and screening.
• DES studies on epigenetics and transgenerational effects.
• DES studies on fertility and pregnancy.
• DES studies on gender identity and psychological health.
• DES studies on in-utero exposure to DES and side-effects.
• DES studies on the genital tract.
• Papers on DES lawsuits.
• DES videos and posts tagged DES, the DES-exposed, DES victims.