Proposal No: CBET-1039402
Given the high potency of some estrogenic chemicals at extremely low levels (1 ng/L), environmental estrogens (EEs) are potentially the most dangerous pollutants that humans produce. EEs include natural and synthetic hormones, PPCPs, plant-based phytoestrogens, and a range of industrial products and byproducts. It is known that they cause reproductive and behavioral problems in fish at environmentally-relevant concentrations. It is also now known that there are sources of these compounds to our surface water that had previously been ignored. Questions remain as to what the most relevant sources of EEs are, where their greatest threat lies (both to ecosystems and to human health), what their fate is in various environments, and what needs to be done to stop the use and/or discharge of these potent pollutants into the environment before an environmental disaster occurs. Unlike many other environmental challenges that we have faced (DDT) or do face (global climate change), this is one that we have the potential to solve before much damage is done. To do so, we must act quickly and focus the talent and creativity of the relevant scientists and engineers in the field on a set of cohesive research questions. The PIs plan to organize a workshop that will span two and a half days, the outcome of which will be a paper that will be submitted to a high-profile journal such as Science. This paper will lay out what the participants feel are the most urgent questions in this field and will act as a means to focus and engage the wider scientific community in the hope that we can better address and work to solve the environmental estrogen problem before it has significant and widespread effects on ecosystems or human health. There is a ?critical mass? of researchers spanning the topics of estrogen sources, their environmental fate, and the ecological and human health effects of these compounds. Unfortunately, these researchers are not working in concert and those working in certain areas (fate) do not necessarily communicate with those working in other areas (human health impacts). The field lacks leadership and is not focused on a common and clear set of questions that will allow it to truly solve this problem. This workshop will focus those working in the field of environmental estrogens on a cohesive research agenda. This will enable them to find a true solution to the problem of estrogen pollution. The outcome of this workshop will be a very public document, but more focused and higher quality research should also result. This will result in drinking water and surface water that better safeguards human and ecological health.
So-called contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) are a group of chemicals that have the potential to alter and/or interfere with a range of biological systems (neurological, hormonal, etc.), thereby changing development, behavior, or disease states in organisms. CECs include a large number of chemicals, some of which are natural, such as the female hormone 17β-estradiol, and some of which are synthetic, such as brominated flame retardants. There has been a large body of research on CECs, but as a whole it is incomplete and very disconnected, leaving scientists, policy-makers, and the public underprepared to assess the risk posed by CECs and develop solutions. We felt that the time was right to gather a group of experts to discuss (1) what was known about exposure, effects, and risk of CECs, (2) what the research needs were to address gaps in this knowledge, and (3) how to approach this problem so that, moving forward, research could be performed in a coordinated way to facilitate real solutions. With this in mind we organized a small workshop in Wisconsin to which experts spanning the field of CEC research, from occurrence (what is where) to ecological (e.g., fish) and human health impacts, were invited. This NSF project paid for the use of the conference facility in Wisconsin and for the participants' travel to the site. The workshop was successful and has resulted in one published opinion paper in a high-profile scientific journal, a correspondence piece in another high-profile scientific journal, and a third paper planned for submittal. Beyond these tangible results, the workshop began a dialog between a group of very different but highly-engaged scientists—spanning industry, academia, and government—which we hope will lead to future meetings and a clear path forward with respect to initiating highly-coordinated space-based research. Plans are currently underway for a follow-up workshop to be funded by another source to better-define the best path forward.
