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image by Elana Centor |
Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are chemicals that interfere with normal endocrine signaling and are thought to contribute to the onset of various diseases later in life, including obesity, precocious puberty, reproductive problems and various cancers, among others. There is a vast body of literature linking EDC exposure to disease, and yet, these chemicals are still used in our consumer products.
On this call, Dr. Deborah Kurrasch highlighted key research into its effects on human health, especially some of our recent findings on the role of BPA in brain development. Dr. Kurrasch also discussed recent research about the proposed substitutions to BPA, including bisphenol S.
Featured Speaker
Dr. Deborah M Kurrasch is an associate professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of Calgary and a Scientist at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Dr. Kurrasch’s research is focused on characterizing the genetic programs that govern hypothalamic development using both mice and zebrafish as model organisms, and also seeks to understand how exposure to environmental chemicals in utero changes these developmental processes. Her work is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, among other private foundations, and she currently is the Lead PI on a large, multi-center grant funded by Brain Canada.
This teleconference call is one in a monthly series sponsored by the Collaborative on Health and the Environment’s EDC Strategies Partnership. The CHE EDC Strategies Partnership is chaired by Carol Kwiatkowski (TEDX), Sharyle Patton (Commonweal), and Genon Jensen (HEAL). To see a full list of past calls in the series and listen to the MP3 recordings please visit the CHE Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals webpage.
The call was moderated by Sharyle Patton, director of the Commonweal Biomonitoring Resources Center. The call lasted for 30 min and was recorded.