Recently a few new stories have been coming out talking about estrogen and endorcine edisruptors affects in the environment. Here is a link to a National Geographic article http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/11/1103_041103_potomac_fish.html

Studying Endorcine disruptors is a relatively new field in analytical chemistry. As more work is being done we are finding more compounds that interefere with hormone systems. These include obvious estrogen mimickers like persciprtion birth control and menopause drugs. It also includes many organic compounds such as PCB's, pthalates and some herbicides and pesticides. Some metal complexes have also been found to screw with sex hormones. The scary thing about this is it can take extremely small amounts of these endorcine disruptors to cause problems in sensitive organisms.

Many of these compounds have been known to be toxic for quite some time. Until recently pthalates were thought to be fairly benign. Pthalates are found extensively in our world. There are used as plasticisers and are found in a wide variety of household products.

This is a new frontier in environmental chemistry. One that is being closely watched as a new treatment plant is built between and Snohomish counties and as more pressures are applied to local utilities.

Steve