Endocrine disruptors and the obesity epidemic

The highlighted article brings together research on the site and mechanism of endocrine-disrupting chemicals that have the potential to have a significant impact on human health and research on obesity, which is known to seriously impact human health. The effect of exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals on the initiation or exacerbation of obesity, which may significantly alter the perception of the etiology of obesity and impact intervention and prevention efforts, is an important emerging area needing even further research emphasis. Obesity is a growing concern worldwide. The prevalence of obesity has risen dramatically in developed countries over the past 2 to 3 decades (Oken and Gillman, 2003). Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States with more than 20 % of adults defined as clinically obese and an additional 30 % defined as overweight. In 1999, 13 % of children aged 6-11 years and 14 % of adolescents aged 12-19 years in the United States were overweight. This prevalence has nearly tripled for adolescents in the past 2 decades. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The Surgeon General’s call to action to prevent and decrease overweight and obesity, 2001) Since overweigh