EDC Science Weekly, May 8-14, 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:

Policy change and defining the xenome are essential to address environmental chemicals
Estrogenic activity in tampons
Human studies on micro/nanoplastics and the lung, placenta, and brain

Science summaries and highlights

Events

HEEDS has a webinar series to promote young EDC scientists, please join us on Tuesday!

May 19 webinar: Prenatal Exposure to OP Pesticides: Health outcomes & potential mechanisms [EDC Strategies Partnership, HEEDS Young EDC Scientist Showcase]

May 19 webinar: NIH Strategic Priorities Supporting Progress in Birth Defects Research, Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology, and Next Generation New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) [Society of Toxicology, Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention]

May 20 panel: Made to Last, Built to Harm: Reckoning and reimagining our relationship with plastic [Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation, Agents of Change]

May 21 webinar: Hidden Harms: How plastics & chemicals in plastics impact children’s developing brains [CHE Alaska]

May 26 webinar: Virtual control groups in pre-clinical toxicity studies [ECHA]

May 29 conference: HEEDS EDC-North Carolina Annual Scientific Meeting (in person in Raleigh NC) [HEEDS]

Summer 2026: Skills for Health and Research Professionals (SHARP) Training program [Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health]

June 8-10: National PFAS Conference (in Tucson, AZ)

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

June 15 due date for RFI: Facilitating Evidence Synthesis to Improve Decision-Making on Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals [Pew Charitable Trusts]

June 25 webinar: Reporting on Toxics & Health: Lessons from covering “forever chemicals” [CHE]

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.

July 15 due date: Call for papers: Bridging Human and Animal Studies to Better Understand How Environmental Factors Impact Human Reproductive and Developmental Health: Celebrating Professor Shanna H. Swan for Her Outstanding Achievements in the Field [Reproductive Toxicology]

Regulations/Policy

Policy Change and Defining the Xenome Are Essential to Address the Environmental Chemical Contribution to Chronic Diseases.

Addressing contaminants of emerging concern in the United States public water systems.

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

Methods/Tools/Screening

What’s in a NAM?

On the background of plastics nanoparticles in our research.

Bridging the life-course exposome approach with a life-cycle perspective in safe and sustainable by design (SSbD) for chemical risk.

AOP report: Adverse Outcome Pathway Network for Developmental Androgen Signalling-Inhibition Leading to increased Nipple/Areola Retention in Male Offspring.

A review of Leydig cell hyperplasia in fish models: Implications for endocrine toxicity studies

Animal research in the UK: Regulation, implementation, welfare and development of new approach methodologies.

From animal models to NAMs: a paradigm shift in developmental immunotoxicity testing.

Commentaries

Moving towards Next-Generation Environmental Risk Assessment of Chemicals in China.

Prenatal exposure to ambient air pollution and risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in offspring: A nationwide population-based cohort study – A commentary on Oh and Song 2026.

Reviews/Meta-Analyses

Numerous Chemicals/Mixtures

Contemporary Review: Temporal Dynamics of Neuroinflammation in Response to Environmental Exposure.

Risk Factors for Idiopathic Premature Ovarian Insufficiency.

A systematic review on the evaluation of endocrine-disrupting chemicals as potential neurotoxins during zebrafish development.

NLRP3 inflammasome dysregulation by endocrine-disrupting chemicals and heavy metals: Developmental programming, sex differences, and inflammaging across the lifespan.

Environmental Exposures and Atherosclerotic Risk Factors in Vulnerable Youth: The Example of American Indian/Alaska Native Populations.

Food packaging migrants as co-adjuvants in food allergy through synergistic barrier disruption and immune dysregulation.

Genetic susceptibility and environmental factors in dementia with Lewy bodies: Converging pathogenic mechanisms.

Phthalates

Evaluating the potential carcinogenic hazard of diisononyl phthalate in humans via systematic integration of human, animal cancer studies, and mechanistic data.

PFAS

Systematic review on internal exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and risk of ischemic heart diseases.

Knowledge structure and thematic organization of PFAS-associated cardiac toxicity: A bibliometric analysis.

Microplastics/Nanomaterials

Reproductive Health Consequences of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Microplastics in Mid-life Women: A Systematic Review of Emerging Evidence.

Microplastics and reproductive health: implications for human health and areas for future research.

Polylactic acid microplastics as metabolic disruptors: Linking gut dysbiosis to systemic toxicity by disrupting microbiota-host co-metabolism.

Iatrogenic Micro(nano)plastics Exposure in Healthcare: A Review of Analytical Processes, Emerging Threats, and Perspectives.

A Scoping Review of Microplastic Contamination in Infant Foods: Exposure Pathways and Implications for Nutrition and Health of Children.

The Invisible Burden: A Meta-Analysis of Methodological Evolutions and the Reassessment of Microplastic Concentrations in Human Tissues.

Micro/nanoplastic-induced gut dysbiosis: A key driver of systemic toxicity via the gut-organ axes in animals.

Bioplastics Toxicity upon Ingestion: A Critical Review of Biotransformation and Gastrointestinal Effects.

Microplastics deplete soil available nutrients: a global meta-analysis with machine learning reveals critical thresholds and interactive controls.

Miscellaneous

Biopolymer coatings for barrier and functional enhancement of sustainable food packaging: Recent advances and emerging trends.

Human Health Studies

Numerous Chemicals/Mixtures

Prevalent Detection of Multiclass Environmental Chemicals in paired CSF and Plasma Samples and their Potential Associations with Postpartum Depressive Symptoms in Pregnant Women.

Disentangling the Multifactorial Influences on Diabetes Risk Among Rural Communities: Food Environment, Diet Quality, and Dietary Chemical Exposures.

Untargeted metabolomic profiling of childhood asthma: An exploratory analysis of anthropogenic chemicals and the serum metabolome.

Bisphenols/Phthalates

The joint and interactive effects of household income, delivery mode with prenatal BPA exposure on offspring early postnatal growth trajectories: A prospective cohort study.

Prenatal and childhood exposure to common plasticizers in relation to emotional and behavioral development through adolescence.

Association of Exposure to Phthalates and Substitutes with Infection Risk Among U.S. Children.

A cross-sectional study of phthalate exposure and correlation with testosterone and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) in females in the United States of America (USA).

Prenatal phthalate mixture exposure increases early childhood internalising problems via maternal oxidative stress.

Parabens/Triclosan/Antimicrobials

Prenatal paraben exposure and pregnancy complications: The moderating role of psychological anxiety.

Association of prenatal parabens exposure with adverse pregnancy outcomes: the role of prenatal depressive symptoms.

PFAS

Sex-specific Associations of Prenatal Exposure to Legacy and Emerging PFAS with Fetal Anogenital Distance: A Study based on the Jiashan Birth Cohort.

Associations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) with key metabolic cardiovascular disease risk factors. The Tromsø Study.

Elevated serum levels of perfluorophosphonates among elderly residents living near e-waste dismantling areas and their associations with glucose homeostasis.

The modifying role of maternal adverse psychological status on the association between prenatal exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and infant atopic dermatitis: A nested case-control study.

Lipid metabolism links seminal PFAS exposure to IVF outcomes.

PFAS exposure and hypertension in US adults: A multi-method, cross-sectional analysis of NHANES 2005 to 2014.

Flame Retardants

Mixed exposure to brominated flame retardants adversely affects vaccine-induced antibody titers: Risk prioritization and benchmark dose modeling.

Prenatal flame-retardant exposure and birth outcomes in the Northern Finland mother-child cohort (NUGEN).

Organophosphate Esters Accumulation Induces Ovarian Dysfunctions: From Epidemiological Evidence to the Exploration of Ferroptosis Mechanism.

Pesticides

Mapping pesticide mixtures to cancer risk at the country scale with spatial exposomics.

Metals/Metalloids

Prenatal exposure to metal mixtures and mitochondrial DNA content and telomere length in newborns: potential modulation by TERT gene variants.

Assessment of differences in urinary heavy metal concentrations and environmental factors between children with autism spectrum disorder and neurotypical controls.

Impact of toxic metal exposure on blood pressure: Insights into individual and combined effects with Bayesian kernel machine regression.

Return to baseline arsenic concentrations after 1 year on gluten-free diet in children with celiac disease: A prospective cohort study.

Platelet count partially mediates the association between mixed metal exposure and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk: A case-control study.

Microplastics/Nanomaterials

Multiple types of exogenous microparticles coexist in the early human decidua and placental villi.

Micro- and nanoplastic exposure, immune cell activation, and lung function in young adults.

Microplastics and nanoplastics in brain tumours and the healthy human brain [and related Microplastics but macro-concerns on the brain.]

Air Pollution

Effect of PM2.5 exposure on the risk of incident autoimmune diseases: a prospective cohort study in Taiwan.

Associations of short-term exposure to PM_2.5 and its metal constituents with fasting plasma glucose in older adults: The mediating role of systemic inflammation.

Association between ambient air pollution exposure and pubertal development: An ecological study.

Laboratory Studies

Numerous Chemicals/Mixtures

Multispecies toxicity evaluation of extractable chemicals from commercial biodegradable plastic products.

Discrimination of Steatotic and Non-Steatotic Chemicals Through Transcriptome Analysis in Primary Human Hepatocytes.

Bisphenols

Integrated study reveals molecular mechanisms by which bisphenol A promotes ovarian cancer.

Embryonic exposure to Bisphenol S causes long-term social behavioural alterations in adult zebrafish (Danio rerio).

Autophagy attenuates the secondary senescence of endometrial stromal cells induced by Bisphenol S.

Integrating network toxicology with multi-omics approaches to elucidate molecular targets and pathway mechanisms in BPA-induced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Bisphenol A Induces Osteoporosis by Targeting LAMA4 and OLR1: Novel Insights into Environmental Bone Toxicity.

Bisphenol A potentiates ischemia-reperfusion-induced endothelial and blood-brain barrier dysfunction associated with CX3CL1-CX3CR1 signaling

Biofunctional Pectin Derived from Pomelo Peel: Structural Insights and Neuro-Gut Protective Mechanisms in Zebrafish under Bisphenol AF-Induced Neurotoxicity.

Polygonatum sibiricum polysaccharides mitigate bisphenol S-induced thyroid endocrine disruption and neurodevelopment toxicity in zebrafish larvae.

Phthalates

Bis(2-ethylhexyl)tetrabromophthalate disrupts thyroid hormone signaling and causes visual impairment in zebrafish larvae.

FSH mediated endocrine disruption potential of Dibutyl phthalate in cultured ovine ovarian granulosa cells: cytotoxicity, oxidative stress, steroidogenesis, cell senescence and expression of related key developmental genes.

Dibutyl phthalate induces DNA damage and activates ATM-Chk2-p53 signaling to disrupt the prepubertal blood-testis barrier.

Mono(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate modulates bone marrow-derived APCs and exacerbates allergic lung inflammation via PPARγ-dependent pro-inflammatory signaling.

Chronic early-life exposure to diisopentyl phthalate, a plasticizer induced aging and impaired innate immunity via insulin-like and p38 MAPK pathways in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Di-2-ethylhexyl Phthalate Reprograms Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Lenvatinib Responsiveness in Hepatoma Cells via SPAG4-Dependent MAPK/ERK Signaling.

Parabens/Triclosan/Antimicrobials

Structural determinants of paraben-mediated 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 1 inhibition: Integrated mechanistic, kinetic and in silico approaches to cortisol metabolism.

PFAS

Environmentally relevant concentrations of PFDA exacerbate inflammatory bowel disease through impairing macrophagic efferocytosis of apoptotic intestinal epithelial cells.

A PFAS mixture at environmental relevant concentration induces DNA damage and compromises the in vitro maturation of mouse oocytes.

Analysis of transcriptomic alterations induced by 33 different per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in differentiated HepaRG cells.

N-Ethyl Perfluorooctane Sulfonamide (N-EtFOSA) Exposure Alters Microbiome Composition and Causes Microbiome-Dependent Behavior Effects in Larval Zebrafish.

Comparative Hepatotoxicity Assessment of PFOS and Its Alternative 6:2 FTSA in Adult Female Zebrafish.

Flame Retardants

TCEP Flame Retardant Linked to Prostate Cancer Progression: Integrative analysis and Novel Biomarker Discovery.

Multi-omics investigations reveal the critical role of the liver-microbiota-gut axis in tetrabromobisphenol S-induced liver fibrosis.

Life-cycle exposure to tris(2-butoxyethyl) phosphate at environmentally relevant concentrations induces progressive Parkinsonian-like neurodegeneration via lysosomal dysfunction in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Pesticides

Difenoconazole impairs male reproductive function by inducing spermatogenic ferroptosis via the Wnt/β-catenin/NCOA4-mediated ferritinophagy axis.

Effects of quercetin in male rats’ testis after consumption of permethrin: a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study.

Thyroid Hormone Disruption and Developmental Toxicity of Diuron and Irgarol 1051 in Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Larvae.

Roundup^® Original DI promotes proliferation in papillary thyroid carcinoma cells: a comparative study highlighting cell-type-dependent effects.

Mechanistic Insights into Atrazine-Driven Endothelial Dysfunction: The Contribution of Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress.

Gestational and Lactational Atrazine Exposure Potentially Mediates Behavioral and Dopaminergic Alterations in Rat Offspring: Insights into Nurr1-Related ceRNA Regulation.

Developmental and behavioral effects of fetal and neonatal exposure to the phenylpyrazole pesticide fipronil in mice.

Protective role of Algerian Myrtus communis L. against pesticide mixture-induced reproductive toxicity: a combined experimental and molecular dynamics insights targeting steroidogenesis pathway.

Melatonin Alleviates Atrazine-Induced Kidney Damage by Regulating RIPK3 to Inhibit Necroptosis.

Microplastics/Nanomaterials

Mechanical aging of tire microplastics enhances the bioavailability of pre-adsorbed 17β‑estradiol in goldfish.

Gut microbiota-GABA axis dysregulation underlies polystyrene microplastic (PS-MP) neurotoxicity in rainbow trout: a role for oxidative stress and blood-brain barrier disruption.

Cross-Organ Toxicity and Metabolic Responses to Food Chain-Transferred Nanoplastics: Mechanistic Insights from a Multiomics Perspective.

Sub-Chronic Exposure to Nanoplastics in vitro Disrupts Hepatic Lipid Homeostasis in Human Hepatocytes.

A network toxicology and in vitro study on the role of micro- and nanoplastics in exacerbating the progression risk from Hashimoto’s thyroiditis to papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Pharmaceuticals/Personal Care Products

Estrogenic activity in tampon products.

Exposure/Environment Studies

Numerous Chemicals/Mixtures

Pharmaceuticals, personal care-products and current-use pesticides: a review of the available data from European seas.

Persistent Organic Pollutants: PCBs, Dioxin, OCPs

Far from the coast: organohalogen bioaccumulation in spinner dolphins from the Southwestern Atlantic.

PFAS

Tracking PFAS in Miami-Dade, Florida groundwater: trends, hotspots, and regulatory implications from a multi-year monitoring study.

Nest attendance in two Finnish waterfowl species in relation to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and thyroid hormones.

Biomonitoring Reveals the Transition from Legacy to Emerging PFAS in Subtropical Estuaries: Dual Roles of Usage Shift and Environmental Parameters.

Advancing PFAS Biomonitoring in Hair: Rapid Analytical Method and Global Comparison of US Exposure.

Pesticides

The 2024 European Union report on pesticide residues in food.

Tracing pesticides through terrestrial food webs with wildlife at risk.

Metals/Metalloids

Multi-Metric Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metal Contamination in Cosmetics: A Comparative Analysis of Makeup, Henna and Skin Creams.

Microplastics/Nanomaterials

Tea bags as hidden source of micro- and nanoplastics: a systematic review for food safety.

Microplastics induce liver inflammation in cattle through the rumen microbiota-gut-liver axis.

The faecal microplastic pump: Zooplankton efficiently transport microplastics to the ocean depths.

Miscellaneous

Tire Wear Particles as a Source of Organic Contaminants in the Agroenvironment: Release of Tire Wear-Derived Compounds and their Plant Uptake.

Widespread Occurrence of Tire Wear p-Phenylenediamines and Their Quinones in Cloud Water.

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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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