EDC Science Weekly, May 2-8, 2025

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:

Assisted reproduction and PFAS, bisphenols, and phthalates/omega-3s, plus bisphenol and phthalate in women and men, time to pregnancy, and risk of miscarriage.
Prenatal PFAS exposure and maternal gut microbiome composition in pregnancy.
Exposure to phthalates and replacements during pregnancy in association with gestational blood pressure and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.
Alternative plastic materials pose higher chemical hazard and aquatic ecotoxicity than conventional plastics.
Evaluation of chemical exposures generated from n-free nail polishes.

Science summaries and highlights

Events

May 8 webinar [today!]: Changes at NIH: What do they mean for environmental health? [EDC Strategies Partnership]

May 10-13: EDC sessions at European endocrinology society meeting [European Society for Pediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) and the European Society of Endocrinology (ESE)]

May 14: Minimising the impact of endocrine disrupting chemicals on health and environment [a scientific update following the Joint Congress of ESPE and ESE, sponsored by ESE]

May 15 webinar: Microplastics’ Impact on the Brain & Heart [Beyond Plastics, PSR NY, Environmental Advocates]

May 15 webinar: Health on the Negotiating Table: Stakeholder Reflections on the Plastics Treaty Draft [Geneva Environment Network, IPEN, WHO, HCWH]

May 20 webinar: The Enduring Legacy of Lead Poisoning [SCCMA]

May 29 webinar: Corporate Drivers of Disease: Exploring the UCSF Industry Documents Library [CHE, UCSF PRHE]

June 10 conference: Preventing diseases by reducing exposure to harmful chemicals (hybrid) [Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL)]

June 16-17 workshop: Roadmap to phase out animal testing for chemical safety assessments [The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)]

July 8 webinar: Communicating about EDCs & Health: Why words matter [CHE]

July 30 – Aug. 1 conference: U.S. Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) Society Annual Meeting

More events

Regulations/Policy

Mapping chemicals across EU’s legal frameworks towards a ‘one substance, one assessment’ approach.

History of Risk Assessments of the Organophosphate Pesticide Chlorpyrifos at the US Environmental Protection Agency, 1980‒2024.

Cancer Burden from Dietary Exposure to Inorganic Arsenic in the United States: Risk Assessment and Policy Implications.

Why and How FDA Wants to End Use of Synthetic Food Dyes

More EDC policy, FPF’s regulations open for comment, Science’s Trump-Tracker, and links to preserved resources removed from U.S. federal websites

Methods/Tools/Screening

Trends, challenges, and research pathways in emerging contaminants: a comprehensive bibliometric analysis.

Anthropogenic PFAS or Natural Products? Natural Products Cause Overestimation of C2-C5 Perfluoroalkyl Carboxylic Acid Levels.

Human sperm as an in vitro toxicity model: a versatile tool for assessing the risk of environmental contaminants.

Incorporating Metabolic Competence into High-Throughput Profiling Assays.

Identifying human toxicodynamic variability: A systematic evidence map of the current knowledge.

A Tool to Support Food Substance Safety Evaluations in the United States.

Using data on the uncertainty of LOAELs to model the probability of observing adverse effects in low-dose studies of the toxicity of chemical mixtures.

A tiered next-generation risk assessment framework integrating toxicokinetics and NAM-based toxicodynamics: “proof of concept” case study using pyrethroids.

Commentaries

The turning point: April 2025 marks historic shift in US animal testing policy.

Microplastics and the Rising Tide of Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer: Exploring the Environmental Gut Connection.

The danger of microplastics.

Mind over microplastics – what we still don’t know.

Adverse health effects of PFAS.

Reviews/Meta-Analyses

Persistent Organic Pollutants: PCBs, Dioxin, OCPs

Association between polychlorinated biphenyls and hypertension risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

PFAS

PFAS polymers in focus: supporting Europe’s zero pollution, low-carbon and circular economy ambitions [Briefing by the European Environment Agency]

Pesticides

Are glyphosate or glyphosate-based herbicides linked to Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)? The weight of current evidence.

Peer review of the pesticide risk assessment for the active substance etoxazole in light of confirmatory data on the endocrine disruption assessment.

Microplastics/Nanomaterials

Effects of Micro- and Nanoplastic Exposure on Macrophages: A Review of Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms.

Pharmaceuticals/Personal Care Products

Impact of endocrine disruptors in cosmetics on reproductive function in males and females.

Miscellaneous

Environmental Fate, Toxicity, and Mitigation of 6PPD and 6PPD-Quinone: Current Understanding and Future Directions.

Human Health Studies

Numerous Chemicals/Mixtures

Oxidative stress and cumulative exposure to environmental pollutants in lactating mothers living in the Valencian Region (Spain).

Bisphenols/Phthalates/Parabens

Periconception bisphenol and phthalate concentrations in women and men, time to pregnancy, and risk of miscarriage.

Exposure to phthalates and replacements during pregnancy in association with gestational blood pressure and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

Novel insights into the causal relationship between endocrine-disrupting chemicals and breast cancer mediated by circulating metabolites.

Effects of Bisphenols on the Assisted Reproductive Technology Outcomes Considering the Patient Clinical Parameters.

Effect modification of serum omega-3 fatty acids on the associations between urinary phthalate biomarkers mixture and pregnancy outcomes among women seeking fertility care.

PFAS

Prenatal PFAS exposure and outcomes related to maternal gut microbiome composition in later pregnancy.

Prenatal per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance mixtures and weight for length from birth to 12 months: The New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study.

Association between perfluorooctanoic acid-related poor embryo quality and metabolite alterations in human follicular fluid during IVF：A Cohort Study.

High-dimensional mediation analysis to elucidate the role of metabolites in the association between PFAS exposure and reduced SARS-CoV-2 IgG in pregnancy.

Individual and mixtures of PFAS during pregnancy are associated with maternal cardiometabolic outcomes during pregnancy.

Decoding per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in hepatocellular carcinoma: a multi-omics and computational toxicology approach.

Incidence of respiratory diseases associated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in PM_2.5: New evidence from a population-based survey of Pearl River Delta (PRD), China.

Pesticides

Association of maternal urinary pesticide metabolites with neonatal birth outcomes and the moderating effects of iodine.

Glyphosate exposure increases early kidney injury biomarker KIM-1 in the pediatric population: a cross-sectional study.

Acetylcholinesterase activity and hematological parameters in individuals exposed to pesticides in a Brazilian state: a cross-sectional study.

Microbial Disturbances Caused by Pesticide Exposure and Their Predictive Implications for Gestational Diabetes Mellitus.

Metals/Metalloids

Prenatal mercury exposure and body mass index at 2 and 4 years: The Japan Environment and Children’s Study.

Exposure to toxic chemical elements (Pb, Cd, and Hg) and its association with sustained high blood pressure among secondary school attending adolescents in Northwestern Tanzania.

Heavy metals exposure and risk factors for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among school children in Makassar City, Indonesia.

Low-level arsenic exposures, childhood neighborhood disadvantage, and executive functions in adolescents from Montevideo, Uruguay.

Air Pollution

Air Pollution and Autism Spectrum Disorder: Unveiling Multipollutant Risks and Sociodemographic Influences in California.

Long-term Exposure to Air Pollution and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in the Nurses’ Health Study and Nurses’ Health Study II.

Air pollution and preterm birth: comparing trimester average and repeated threshold exposure metrics in a North Carolina birth cohort, 2003-2015.

Miscellaneous

Association between urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites and premature menopause: a nationally representative cross-sectional study in the United States.

Laboratory Studies

Numerous Chemicals/Mixtures

Perinatal exposure to lead or diethylhexyl phthalate in mice: Sex-specific effects on cardiac DNA methylation and gene expression across time.

Exposure to organophosphate flame retardants and phthalates alters neuronal activity and network development.

BPA/Phenols

Prenatal exposure to Bisphenol A sex-specifically disrupts prepulse inhibition and decreases parvalbumin-positive neurons in the prefrontal cortex of adult rats.

Bisphenol A Exposure Modifies the Vasoactive Response of the Middle Cerebral Artery.

Phthalates

MEHP Impairs Male Reproductive Function Through the Lipid Metabolism Pathway: Evidence from in vitro Human Immature Testis Culture.

Epidemiologically Relevant Phthalate Mixture and Mono(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) Phthalate Exposure Alter Cell Energy Metabolism in Primary Mouse Granulosa Cells.

Arachidonic acid metabolite prostaglandin E2 attenuates diethylhexyl phthalate-induced hepatotoxicity through promoting macrophage M2 polarization.

Phthalates Impair Estrogenic Regulation of HIF2α and Extracellular Vesicle Secretion by Human Endometrial Stromal Cells.

Exposure to phthalates enhances estrogen and beta-catenin signaling pathways, leading to endometrial hyperplasia in mice.

Neonatal exposure to an environmentally relevant phthalate mixture alters ovarian function in mice.

PFAS

PFHxA and PFHxS promote breast cancer progression in 3D culture: MEX3C-associated immune infiltration revealed by bioinformatics and machine learning.

Differential effects of different time windows of postnatal perfluorooctane sulfonate exposure on cognitive development in mouse hippocampus.

Bioconcentration and toxicity of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in embryonic stages of the ecologically and commercially relevant Olive Flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus), and the zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryo model system.

Environmentally relevant concentrations of individual per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and a PFAS mixture impact proliferation, migration, and gene transcription in a human myometrial cell line.

Flame Retardants

Exposure to Brominated Flame Retardants During Pregnancy and Lactation Increases the Prevalence of Breast Lesions and Cancer-Associated Pathways in Sprague-Dawley Rats.

Mechanisms of Developmental Neurotoxicity of Dechlorane Plus, a Recently Identified Persistent Organic Pollutant: An In Silico Study.

Pesticides

Evaluation of the interaction between the pesticides chlorantraniliprole and imidacloprid with the ATP-binding cassette transporter G2 (ABCG2): in vitro and in vivo assays.

Organophosphate pesticides modulate gut microbiota and influence bile acid metabolism in an in vitro fermentation model.

Effects of environmentally relevant concentrations of carbendazim, either alone or combined with benzophenone-3, on testicular development in Xenopus laevis.

The Opposite Effects of Atrazine and Warming on the Reproductive Processes in Female Lizards (Eremias argus): Potential Roles of Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Gonadal Axis Regulation and Energy Metabolism.

Chronic Exposure to Field-Level Thiamethoxam Impairs Gut Tissue and Reduces Honeybee (Apis cerana) Survival.

Microplastics/Nanomaterials

Alternative plastic materials pose higher chemical hazard and aquatic ecotoxicity than conventional plastics.

Exposure to Polyethylene Terephthalate Microplastic Induces Mouse Liver Fibrosis Through Oxidative Stress and p38 MAPK/p65 NF-κB Signaling Pathway.

Toxicity of long term exposure to low dose polystyrene microplastics and nanoplastics in human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes.

Enhanced toxic effects of photoaged microplastics on the trophoblast cells.

Profiling of lincRNAs and differential regulatory mechanisms in response to nanoplastic toxicity at environmentally relevant concentrations in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Nanoplastic exposure affects the intestinal microbiota of adult Drosophila flies.

Impact of polystyrene microplastics (PS-MPs) on the entire female mouse reproductive cycle: Assessing reproductive toxicity of microplastics through in vitro follicle culture.

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles disturb glucose homeostasis in association with impaired enteroendocrine cell differentiation.

Effects of microplastics and tetracycline induced intestinal damage, intestinal microbiota dysbiosis, and antibiotic resistome: metagenomic analysis in young mice.

Short-term exposure to ciprofloxacin and microplastic leads to intrahepatic cholestasis, while long-term exposure decreases energy metabolism and increases the risk of obesity.

Pharmaceuticals/Personal Care Products

Exposure to ethinyl estradiol during lactation reduces maternal mammary gland complexity and restricts pup growth in mice.

Miscellaneous

Acute Toxicity of 4-hydroxydiphenylamine (4-HDPA) and N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N’-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine-quinone (6PPDQ), transformation products of 6PPD, to early instars of the mayfly, Neocloeon triangulifer.

Tire Rubber Antioxidant 6PPD and 6PPD-quinone Disrupt the Energy Supply and Lipid Metabolism of Earthworms.

Developmental exposure to 1,4-dioxane, a volatile organic compound of emerging concern, induces immediate phenotypic, transcriptomic, and adult-onset neurodevelopmental effects.

Exposure/Environment Studies

Numerous Chemicals/Mixtures

Evaluation of chemical exposures generated from n-free nail polishes.

BPA/Phenols

Comparative Evaluation of Bisphenol-A Released from Five Different Orthodontic Aligners – An In vitro Study Using Gas Chromatography Coupled with Mass Spectrometry.

PFAS

Development and analysis of 49 perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in contact lenses using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).

Unveiling PFAS hazard in European surface waters using an interpretable machine-learning model.

Atmospheric Emission of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) from a Fluoropolymer Manufacturing Facility: Focus on Emerging PFAS and the Potential Contribution of Condensable PFAS on their Atmospheric Partitioning.

PFAS drinking water treatment trade-offs: comparing the health burden of GAC treatment to the health benefits of reduced PFAS exposure.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water systems in the lower Yangtze River: source, fate, and health risk assessment.

Homologues of PFOA substitutes in a semi-closed bay near source region: contamination status and risk assessments.

Flame Retardants

Trends of Organophosphate Ester Flame Retardant Metabolites in Age- and Sex-Stratified Pooled Australian Urine Samples from the Past Decade (2012-2023).

Pesticides

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in California’s Use of Agricultural Pesticides.

Occurrence and profiles of glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid in paired urine and feces of humans, cats, and dogs.

Honeybee toxicity of pesticides used in United States maize and soybean production, 1998-2020.

Metals/Metalloids

Switching to marine prey leads to unprecedented mercury concentrations in a population of coastal Alaska wolves.

Microplastics/Nanomaterials

High levels of microplastics and microrubber pollution in a remote, protected Mediterranean Cladocora caespitosa coral bed.

Miscellaneous

Melamine derivatives in indoor dust from China: Temporal trends and human exposure before and during COVID-19 pandemic.

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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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