EDC Science Weekly, Mar. 13-19, 2026

A summary of articles on endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) added to PubMed this week.

Contents: Events, Regulations/Policy, Methods/Tools/Screening, Commentaries, Reviews/Meta-Analyses, Human Health Studies, Laboratory Studies, Exposure/Environment Studies

Highlights:

Targeting Plastic Exposure in Infertile Couples: A Pilot Intervention Study
PFAS endocrine disruption affecting pubertal development: exposure-response is steeper below median PFAS serum concentrations.

Science summaries and highlights

Events

Apr. 2 webinar: Plastics, Chemicals and Infertility: What we know now, with Dr. Shanna Swan re the Plastic Detox film [EDC Strategies Partnership]

May 5 hybrid symposium: NAMs and TAMs (New and Traditional Approaches and Methodologies): The Future of Laboratory-Based Environmental Health and Toxicology Research for Harm Reduction [Duke Integrated Toxicology and Environmental Health Program]

May 6: ECHO Symposium: Translating Science to Action (hybrid) [NIH]

May 7 webinar: The Plastic Detox: A Free Educational Webinar on the New Documentary Film [Beyond Plastics]

Summer 2026: Registration is open for the Skills for Health and Research Professionals (SHARP) Training program [Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health]. Scholarship deadline is March 20.

June 10: TSCA Reform: 10 years later (hybrid) [Environmental Law Institute]

June 28 – July 3: New and emerging threats, approaches, and mitigation strategies for environmental endocrine disruptors [Gordon Research Conference] and accompanying Gordon Research Seminar June 27 – 28, Harnessing interdisciplinary evidence for endocrine disruption.

July 8-10: U.S. Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) annual meeting (Raleigh NC); Trainee day July 8; Abstract submission open March 16 to April 16.

Oct. 12-16: conference: MICRO 2026: Plastic pollution from macro to nano [in Cadiz, Spain]

Regulations/Policy

Toward Greater Transparency at the FDA—Now Is the Time to Act

More EDC policy, FPF’s regulations open for comment, and Science’s Trump-Tracker.

Methods/Tools/Screening

Harmonizing ecotoxicological data reporting: A guide for toxicologists and chemists.

In Silico Analysis of Contaminant Persistence: From QSARs to Machine Learning Models.

Perspectives on variability of in vivo toxicology studies: considerations for next-generation toxicology.

Commentaries

A decade of children’s environmental health: insights and implications for the next 10 years

Aluminum Exposure From Vaccines and Diet

Microplastics and Nanoplastics: Novel Components of the Environmental Exposome Associated with Cardiovascular Diseases.

Assertions That East Palestine Residents Can Expect No Long-Term Health Impacts Lack Scientific Support.

Frontiers in Endocrinology is now accepting articles for a Research Topic, Isolated and Mixture Exposures to Endocrine Disruptor Chemicals: Does this Really Matter?

Reviews/Meta-Analyses

Numerous Chemicals/Mixtures

Maternal Diabetes Mellitus and Child Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Rethinking Causality in Light of Environmental Pollutants.

Extracellular Vesicles and Endocrine Disruption: How Environmental Pollutants Modulate the Loading and Release of Extracellular Vesicles for Cancer Promotion and Progression.

Exposure of wild biota to plastic additives – how much do we know and where are the current knowledge gaps?

Persistent Organic Pollutants: PCBs, Dioxin, OCPs

Persistent organic pollutants in India: Multi-compartment trends, source fingerprinting, and emerging environmental challenges (2000-2025).

PFAS

Exploring the Link Between PFASs Exposure and Gestational Diabetes Risk Within the TRAEC Framework.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and cardiovascular disease: A mechanistic and epidemiological synthesis.

The Impact of Forever Chemicals on Protein Structure and Function.

Pesticides

Pyrethroid-Induced Cardiac Dysfunction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Preclinical Evidence.

Nano-pesticides in agroecosystems: Environmental fate, ecotoxicological impacts, and sustainable risk mitigation strategies.

An integrated review of glyphosate ecotoxicity and environmental fate in aquatic systems using species sensitivity distributions and meta-analysis.

Metals/Metalloids

Heavy metals as endocrine disruptors.

Heavy Metals and One Health: Current Status and Future Prospects.

Silent but Deadly: An Overview Unraveling the Neuropathological Actions of Mercury on the Central Nervous System.

Microplastics/Nanomaterials

Tracking Microplastics From Source to Impact: A Review of Environmental Presence, Exposure, Remediation, and Health Risks.

Miscellaneous

A Critical Review of Emerging Solutions for Food Packaging: Opportunities and Challenges.

Human Health Studies

Numerous Chemicals/Mixtures

Targeting Plastic Exposure in Infertile Couples: A Pilot Intervention Study

Associations of mid-childhood per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and early childhood metals with mid-childhood antibody titers.

Early-life exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and heavy metals and lower lung function in school-age children: A prospective cohort study.

Bisphenols/Phthalates

Exposure to phthalate and phenol mixtures and obesity in children and adolescents: the dominant role of bisphenol A.

Pregnancy exposure to individual phthalate concentrations and their mixtures in relation to pediatric serum antibody response.

From Plastics to Prognosis: ANO4 Susceptibility Links Phthalate Exposure to Prostate Cancer Progression.

Age-Specific Association Between Urinary Phthalate Metabolites and Diabetes Mellitus: Findings from the Korean National Environmental Health Survey Cycle 4 (2018-2020).

PFAS

Association between PFAS compounds in follicular fluid and POR and the intervention effect of Qizi Yusi Tang: a study based on targeted PFAS quantification analysis.

Associations between prenatal per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure and fetal growth measurements in utero and at birth in the LIFECODES cohort: 2006-2019.

PFAS endocrine disruption affecting pubertal development: exposure-response is steeper below median PFAS serum concentrations.

Mechanistic Insights into Perfluoroalkyl Substance-Induced Thyroid Hormone Disruption during Pregnancy: Evidence from Metabolomic Mediation Analysis.

Effects of gestational exposure to individual and mixed PFASs on maternal liver function: evidence from the Wuxi Birth Cohort, animal studies, and toxicogenomic analyses.

PFAS and Adipokines: Decoding Their Roles in the Risk of Breast Nodules and Breast Cancer.

Associations of Serum PFAS with Electrocardiographic Abnormalities in Older Adults and Electrophysiological Characterization.

Pesticides

Farming exposures and Alzheimer’s disease: cross-sectional analysis within the French AGRICAN cohort.

Metals/Metalloids

Exploring the hidden cause of assisted reproductive technologies unfavorable outcomes through the biomonitoring study of heavy metals exposure among women.

Air Pollution

Heatwaves and PM_2.5 from wildfire smoke, non-wildfire sources, and all sources in relation to preterm birth: a nationwide cohort study in Canada.

Air pollution as a mediator of heat-related all-cause mortality among older U.S. adults.

Longitudinal associations between PM_2.5 with gestational diabetes mellitus mediated by gut microbiome and potential mechanism: based on a prospective pregnant women cohort in China.

Laboratory Studies

Numerous Chemicals/Mixtures

Developmental EDC exposures alter hippocampal lipids and metabolites linked to long-term behavioral impairments in rats.

Microbiota-Driven Metabolic Alterations Induced by BPA, TDCPP and PFOA in an Ex Vivo Human Fecal Fermentation Model.

Bisphenols

Bisphenol S exposure before sexual maturity impairs follicular development via Cathepsin L-mediated granulosa cell death.

Bisphenol A Induces DNA Damage and Differential Cytotoxicity in Thyroid Cells: High-Dose Effects Challenge Regulatory Thresholds.

Bisphenol A Induces Endothelial Dysfunction via Oxidative Stress-Driven Ferroptosis and Nrf2 Suppression.

Acute Inhibition of NMDA Receptor Function by Bisphenol A and Bisphenol F in Adult Rat Brain.

Insights into Bisphenol A exposure and male fertility: The role of vitamin D in modulating oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis, spermatogenesis, and the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis.

Unraveling the potential carcinogenic risk of bisphenols: a comprehensive network analysis and computational toxicology insights.

Epigenotoxicity of Bisphenol A altered global and ten-eleven translocation-dependent DNA methylation in a non-model fish.

Impact of bisphenol A and ethinyloestradiol on sex, body condition and digit ratio of the marsh frog Pelophylax ridibundus in the mesocosm exposure system.

Network toxicology and single-cell analysis reveal key gene-mediated bisphenol a interference with granulosa cell function in polycystic ovary syndrome.

Phthalates

Dibutyl phthalate exposure induces thyroid toxicity through follicular cell pyroptosis via the NRF2/KEAP1/NF-κB pathway.

Integrated Analysis of Metabolomics and Proteomics Reveals the Potential Mechanism of Lung Injury Induced by Di(2-Ethylhexyl) Phthalate.

Parabens/Triclosan/Antimicrobials

Integrating Network Toxicology, Machine Learning, and Molecular Dynamics to Explore the Molecular Network of Triclosan-Induced Acute Myocardial Infarction.

PFAS

Functional effects of extracellular vesicles altered by a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance mixture: In vitro liver cytotoxicity and proteomic expression alterations.

Comparative gut toxicity of HFPO-TA and PFOA in hook snout carp reveals risks of emerging PFAS alternatives.

Comparative neurotoxic effects of PFOA and GenX in hiPSC-derived cortical neurons.

Derivation of Provisional Chronic Oral Toxicity Values (PCOTV) for Novel Short-Chain PFAS Congeners.

Toxicological Effects of Acute and Subacute PFOS Exposure on the Bivalve Ruditapes decussatus.

Protective Effects of Astaxanthin on PFOS-Induced Liver Injury via Fatty Acid and Cholesterol Metabolic Pathways.

Pesticides

Organophosphate pesticide DEDT promotes diabetic retinopathy progression via AMPK/Nrf2/HO-1 pathway.

Comparative investigation of the potential of glyphosate and glyphosate-based formulations (GBFs) to cause oxidative stress and DNA damage in human skin and liver cell systems.

Reproductive Toxicity of the Fungicide Pyraclostrobin: Endocrine-Disrupting and Mechanistic Insights.

Atrazine increases hepatic inflammation and injury via endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress mediated excessive formation of mitochondria-associated membranes (MAMs) and activation of the cGAS-STING pathway.

Combined Analysis of Network Toxicology and Multiomics Revealed the Potential Mechanism of Mancozeb-Induced Hepatotoxicity in Mice Offspring.

Fluazinam Caused Liver Metabolism Disorders and Intestinal Inflammation by Affecting Gut-Liver Axis in Mice.

Metals/Metalloids

Developmental lead exposure induces neurotoxicity via glycolytic failure, glial activation, and miR-144 downregulation in male rat offspring.

Microplastics/Nanomaterials

Effects of Microplastics on the Central Reproductive Neuroendocrine System in a Sheep Model.

In vitro exposure to polystyrene microplastics exerts oocyte toxicity through cumulus cells damage in the sheep model.

Role of polystyrene microplastics in the photodegradation of steroidal estrogens: Influencing factors, mechanism and aquatic toxicity assessment.

Microplastics release from infusion sets during intravenous infusion induces cardiovascular toxicity.

Protective effects of exocarpium citri grandis extract and its flavonoid components against polystyrene microplastic-induced hepatointestinal injury.

Subchronic, Low-Frequency Polystyrene Microplastic or Nanoplastic Exposure Elicits Molecular Perturbations but Minimal Clinical Phenotypes in the Mouse Gut-Brain Axis.

Co-exposure to polystyrene nanoplastics and cadmium induces apoptosis in intestinal cells: Role of the IP3R/Ca²⁺/STAT3 signaling pathway.

Effect of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles From Infant Formula Milk Powder on Colon Cells In Vitro.

Transcriptomics and metabolomics reveal functional nanoplastics-induced male reproductive damage and resveratrol antagonistic effects.

Exposure of Human Corneal Epithelial Cells to Microplastic Particles Induces a Phase-Specific Cytokine Response.

Co-exposure to Cadmium and Polystyrene Nanoplastics Intensifies Renal Damage in Mice via the Activation of the PANoptosis Pathway.

Miscellaneous

Gestational Exposure to Tri-n-butyl Phosphate Induces Maternal Insulin Resistance and Glucose Intolerance by Antagonizing Estrogen Receptor Alpha.

Exposure/Environment Studies

Numerous Chemicals/Mixtures

Multichemical Exposure Assessment Using Silicone Wristbands in Central American Adolescents.

Community cats managed under Trap-Neuter-Return as sentinels of human diet-linked chemical exposure across contrasting feeding contexts.

Persistent Organic Pollutants: PCBs, Dioxin, OCPs

Organochlorine Pesticides in Wildlife: Global Ecotoxicological Insights on Artiodactyls.

PFAS

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Urine Samples from Eight-Year-Old Children Living in Northwest Spain.

Perfluoroalkyl compound levels in breast milk of mothers in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in aquaculture feeds and potential dietary exposure to and from aquaculture fish.

Using a Multi-Tracer Approach to Examine Perfluoroalkyl Substance Sources and Dietary Exposure Pathways in Pacific Bald Eagles.

Network-Based Identification of Sensitive Species Enables Health Assessment for Aquatic Ecosystems under PFAS and Warming Stressors.

Throwing off the long chains: maternal transfer of perfluoroalkyl acids increases with chain length in an Arctic seabird.

Uncovering hidden PFAS burden in Canadian fish: A direct Total Oxidizable Precursor (dTOP) assay approach.

Microplastics/Nanomaterials

Human reproductive exposure to microplastics: A multi-technique analytical study of menstrual and amniotic fluids.

Air Pollution

Can the UK meet the World Health Organization PM_2.5 interim target of 10 μg m^-3 by 2030? Part II: Associated health and economic benefits.

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This list is not meant to be exhaustive, and generally does not include studies on detection, remediation, or treatment of EDCs. Industry-funded articles are included without notation. Note that journal publication dates may be different from dates added to PubMed. To see the searchable archives, please email me and ask to join the EDC Science Weekly group EDC_research@googlegroups.com. There are searchable archives. Compiled by Sarah Howard of Healthy Environment and Endocrine Disruptor Strategies (HEEDS), a program of Environmental Health Sciences.

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