Following the lead of a New York Times article, numerous headlines have emerged blaming endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) as the source of an emerging male fertility crisis. As the narrative goes, modern chemicals that improve the functionality and safety of plastics, cosmetics, and furniture are damaging sperm development, reducing our ability to procreate, and calling into question the future of the human species. Let’s take a deep breath. The jury is still out on whether sperm quality is declining at all. A BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) debate identified several major problems comparing sperm count between studies, because “data collected in different...

In a new article for the Huffington Post, Dr. Joseph Perrone asks Are Chemicals Really Costing Us Billions? He elaborates on a study in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology which claimed that endocrine disruptors cost the U.S. economy $340 billion each year. Spoiler Alert: they don't. The claim that the U.S. is throwing away billions due to low-level exposure to chemicals in everyday items is enough to give anyone pause. Unfortunately, the “groundbreaking” economic analysis relied upon the findings of previous studies suffering from small sample sizes, flawed methodology, illogical leaps, and assumptions In pegging the cost of endocrine disruptors at $340 billion, the researchers first had to...

On Monday, a report published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology made waves claiming that endocrine-disrupting chemicals cost the U.S. $340 billion—over two percent of our GDP. Surely such a claim deserves attention; after all, who would condone spending the equivalent of half the federal defense budget on health burdens like ADHD, diabetes, and obesity? But this paper, like many which rock the news cycle with flashy numbers, is based on flawed science. The costs were based on the assumption that the substances in question actually are endocrine disruptors, and encompassed everything from BPA to PBDE. The distinction between endocrine disruption and endocrine action...