Conflict over oestrogen threat

The UK Department of the Environment has cited new research to support its view that fears about environmental oestrogens in drinking water are unfounded(1). The report suggests that source waters used for drinking water supply are free from oestrogenic effects, although it questions the impact of sewage effluent. The work describes research conducted in 1992-95 to assess whether oestrogenic effects could be measured in male fish held in cages in rivers. Roger Lilley, pollution campaigner at FoE, felt there was little justification for this sanguine approach: “There is clearly a need for action by the government in the face of a growing mountain of evidence about the effects of these chemicals. The government should apply the precautionary principle to protect the public from gender-bending pollution.”
    A further report on the subject from the Institute of Environmental Health (IEH)(2) disputes the DoE position saying that further research is needed before making a robust and reliable assessment of the risk to human health from exposure to environmental oestrogens. The report cites increasing evidence of adverse trends in several measures of human reproductive health, and points to laboratory tests which show some pesticides possess oestrogenic and related activities. No causal link has been established between these two factors in humans, but findings in wildlife increase the concern that a link may exist.

1. Effects of trace organics on fish—Phase 2, Foundation for Water Research, Liston Road, Marlow, Bucks, SL7 1FD, £25.
2. Environmental oestrogens: consequences to human health and wildlife, IEH, Leicester, 1995, £35, 108 pp.