TEDX: Everyday Chemicals – Understanding Endrocine Disruption

What is TEDX? TEDX (The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, Inc.) is the only organization that focuses primarily on the human health and environmental problems caused by low-dose and/or ambient exposure to chemicals that interfere with development and function, called endocrine disruptors. Since antiquity, humans have known that some chemical substances in the environment can cause adverse health effects.

TEDX’s work focuses on the endocrine system, which is the exquisitely balanced system of glands and hormones that regulates such vital functions as body growth, response to stress, sexual development and behavior, production and utilization of insulin, rate of metabolism, intelligence and behavior. Hormones are chemicals such as insulin, thyroxin, estrogen, and testosterone that interact with specific target cells. The interactions occur through a number of mechanisms, the easiest of which to conceptualize is through a lock and key arrangement. For example, target cells such as those in the uterus contain receptor anatomical areas (locks) into which specific estrogenic hormones can attach (key) and thereby cause specific biological actions, such as regulating ovulation or terminating pregnancy. As a matter of science, some synthetic chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and their substitute, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), have been found to mimic this kind of cellular lock-key mechanism by locking onto a specific blood protein that ordinarily transports thyroid hormones throughout the body, blocking the function of the blood protein and thereby disrupting normal biological processes.

TEDX announces its newest release – The Critical Windows of Development
It is a unique interactive webpage that pairs normal human development in the womb with laboratory research showing where and when low-dose exposure to bisphenol-A, phthalates and dioxin has effects.

Click here to view the Critical Windows of Development.

TEDX, founded by Dr. Theo Colborn, is an international non-profit organization. Founder Dr. Theo Colborn has written and lectured widely on the human health and environmental threat posed by endocrine disruptors and other industrially-produced chemicals at low concentrations in the environment. Dr. Colborn serves as the President of TEDX and holds the academic rank of Professor Emeritus, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. TEDX’s programs and finances are overseen by a Board of Directors, whose specialties include public health service, environmental policy development and analysis, environmental advocacy, medical ethics, philosophy and children’s environmental health.

~ by akagreen on February 9, 2009.