Thyroid Endocrine Disruptors: Impacts on Pregnancy

The term ‘endocrine disruptors’ (EDs) was coined almost 30 years ago at the Wingspread Conference by Theo Colburn and, since that time, considerable efforts have been made to expose the threat that these tens of thousands of chemicals, present in foods and countless ordinary household products, pose to human (and environmental) health, and particularly to the fetus, pregnant women, and the young. However, all too few regulators and industries have sought to respond to increasing public demand for action. In this issue of ‘Frontiers’, a collection of papers by academic scientists summarize the latest data on several EDs and their manifold impact on the thyroid, thus pointing once more to the need to establish a process to reduce, and eventually ban, these chemicals now present in environments worldwide.

This collection relates to thyroid endocrine disruptors impact on pregnancy, prenatal, or neonates. See also the concurrent collection Thyroid Endocrine Disruptors