Priority Pollutant, Endocrine Disruptor, and Chemical Contaminant Standards

Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals and Xenoestrogen Standards

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are compounds that exhibit estrogen mimicry. EDCs “convince” certain receptors that they are estrogens. When this happens, fetal development can be impaired in many ways. Unlike many compounds with related toxicity characteristics, EDCs have been shown to be structurally diverse, making it difficult to identify potential EDCs. They share common properties, among the most important of which is an affinity for the estrogen receptor protein. Some screening approaches such as radioligand binding assays and DNA-band shift assays show promise for identification of EDCs, but many questions remain.

Many of the synthetic chemicals suspected of being EDCs are ubiquitous in the modern world. Among classes of compounds believed to be EDCs are pesticides (including herbicides and fungicides, etc.), phthalate esters (extensively used as plasticizers), alkylphenol ethoxylates (metabolic products of common surfactants), PCBs (used in transformers for decades), dioxins, and furans. Many of these chemicals are being created at the rate of thousands of tons each year, while plasticizers are on the order of hundreds of thousands of tons each year.

Inspired by the need for accurate low-level chlorinated dioxin, PCB, and pesticide measurements, CIL has spent over 30 years producing standards for analysis by isotope-dilution gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (IDGC-MS), the definitive method for ultratrace analyses. CIL has labeled standards in inventory for hundreds of potential EDCs from the chemical classes listed above. These compounds have been targeted by organizations such as the US EPA, the World Wildlife Federation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals and Xenoestrogen Standards

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