A paper published in the online peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives last week sends a stronger warning about the possible impact of quite a long list of substances on breast enlargement in males, breast cancer, and female lactation impairment.

The report, the outcomes of a technical workshop held in 2009, is based primarily on animal studies showing that exposure to certain chemicals changes development of mammary glands in both male and female rodents. It also includes evidence to show that rat metabolism and human metabolism respond in similar ways to the presence of hormones. However, existing research is insufficient to draw definitive conclusions on the extent to which endocrine disrupting chemicals behave similarly. The report urges increased research on the effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals.

The paper is available at http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.1002864

A list of suspect chemicals is published in a research paper at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.22653/pdf