Hormonal Chaos

Sheldon Krimsky has written an extremely responsible book and has sounded an important alarm. He provides us all a good education on the scientific, historical, social, and political aspects of the environmental endocrine hypothesis. In a cogent and persuasive presentation, Dr. Krimsky sets forth the possible consequences of allowing endocrine disrupters to go unchecked in our environment. Ironically, Hormonal Chaos calls on us to enlist a reasonable and balanced interdisciplinary approach to understanding the environmental endocrine hypothesis. In short, Dr. Krimsky encourages us to apply common sense to what should be a common concern. -- Senator John F. Kerry Hormonal Chaos is a masterful weaving of the science and politics of endocrine disruption, a public health and environmental problem deserving increased concern and attention. Written by one of America's foremost philosophers and historians of contemporary science, this book clarifies in layman's terms the complexity of a serious emerging health concern. It also criticizes governmental regulation as being unduly influenced by both academic and industrial pressures for science to deliver more than it can. -- Nicholas AshfordMassachusetts Institute of Technologyco-, author of Chemical Exposures: Low Levels and High Stakes In this timely and important book, Sheldon Krimsky has given us a masterful analysis of the scientific, political and economic issues generated by the belated discovery that many of the synthetic chemicals that have been massively introduced into the environment for more than half a century can disrupt the delicately balanced hormonal systems that govern human and animal development. -- Barry Commoner, author of The Closing Circle and Making Peace With the Planet

Krimsky describes how this controversial theory was first elaborated and explores the complex factors that have contributed to its increased legitimacy and continued controversy.In Hormonal Chaos, Sheldon Krimsky traces the emergence of an unorthodox hypothesis that casts new suspicions on a broad range of modern industrial chemicals. At the heart of his story is the "Environmental Endocrine Hypothesis," the assertion that a class of chemicals called "endocrine disruptors" are interfering with the normal functioning of hormones in animals and humans. Krimsky describes how this controversial theory was first elaborated and explores the complex factors that have contributed to its increased legitimacy and continued controversy.