Supervisors info:
Σωτήριος Μάιπας, Εξωτερικός Συνεργάτης, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Ιωάννα Γιαννοπούλου, ΕΔΙΠ, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Νικόλαος Καβαντζάς, Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
The endocrine system is one of the most important homeostatic control systems of the human body, with its main purpose being to maintain normal functions and normal development in a context of constantly changing environment. In the mid-1990s, there were many concerns in the international scientific community regarding the potential of a large number of environmental chemicals, drugs and other aggravating substances affecting and dramatically altering the function of the endocrine system. These concerns were initially the focus of attention of the science of toxicology, but very quickly of the international public opinion as well. In the present dissertation a literature review was carried in relation to the endocrine disruptors, their chemical composition, their presence in the environment but also in products and objects of daily use, the ways the humans are exposed to them and their effects to the human health. In addition, a historical review was carried out in those ancient civilizations that, based on literature data, reveal (directly or indirectly) the effects of the endocrine disruptors in the human health. Throughout the history of mankind there are clear indications of the existence of endocrine disruptors – starting from the first, indirect indications of their existence and impact on the human body during the periods of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, until the Renaissance and the 17th and 18th centuries in remote parts of Africa. These clues turned into evidence during the first decades of the last century, with sporadic documented references of the action of various naturally occurring chemical in the animal kingdom, and reaching, in the middle of the 20th century with the most serious side effects caused by the action of the synthetic estrogen diethylstilvestrol (DES), the pesticide Dichrolo-Diphenyl-Trichroloethane (DDT) and the drug thalidomide in both animals and the human body. The side effects of these substances were so intense and dramatic, that they focused the global research interest on studying not only their effects, but also a number of other substances that were thought to have similar effects – essentially foreshadowing the definition of endocrine disrupting substances by Theodora Colborn and her colleagues in 1992.
Keywords:
Endocrine disruptors, Ancient times, History, Health, Environment
