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The Break Through: Our Stolen Future
In the tradition of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, with a catchy narrative style and shocking revelations, Theo Colborn's Our Stolen Future
was the first major glimpse into the problem of endocrine disrupters
(EDs). Written just ten years ago, the book let Americans and people
worldwide know exactly what was going on with their bodies in an age of
synthetics. This discovery came from a long string of unexplainable
incidents in animal populations throughout the world. Colborn
highlights problems with Bald Eagles in Florida dating back to 1952 and
continuing through the 1950's until the first human example in 1992
with men's sperm counts worldwide beginning to drop. To Colborn the
question was how do these seemingly unrelated incidents worldwide
actually connect. There were similarities, all the problems seemed to
deal with reproductive functions in the animals and finally in humans.
Colborn in fact realized that the problems were all connected to
problems with distribution of hormonal  control of development.
From this realization, Colborn goes in search of
further support for her hypothesis. She finds Dr. vom Saal at the
University of Missouri-Columbia doing research on how slight variations
in hormone exposures in the womb can seriously alter the way mice
mature. After looking at the way hormones impact mice, Colborn tackles
the larger issue of hormone control in women. During the 1950's a
synthetic estrogen called diethylstilbestrol (DES) was prescribed to
women experiencing difficult pregnancies because of the belief that
these women were not producing enough estrogen. DES was actually
prescribed to most pregnant women, as doctors thought it would help
reduce miscarriages. However, Colborn uncovers research that finds that
DES actually does not help with pregnancies, but instead harms the
unborn child. DES children are prone to rare forms of cancer, deformed
sexual organs, and an increased risk of endometriosis. These negative
effects of DES are not usually detected in victims until they go
through puberty, when it is too late to treat problems. Colborn's own
work, along with bring up DES syndrome, is the way cells are vulnerable
to this problem. The problem of the endocrine system
and the transfer of synthetic estrogen to receiver cells confused the
body's natural system, creating problems within the body.
Colborn also brings up the vitally important problem
of biomagnification. In her research, Colborn found that as an
endocrine disrupter affected a plant or lower level organism on the
food chain, the amount of that chemical would increase exponentially as
it rose up the food chain. Simply those on the top of the food chain
will receive more of a chemical as each organism consumes more
organisms carrying EDs. For humans at the top of the food chain, this
should be more than slightly disturbing. We will receive the most; we
will have the highest doses of EDs. After all Colborn found that even
the smallest amounts of EDs, as small as 2 micrograms per kilogram per day,
could forever alter and impede proper development in fetuses. EDs are
very powerful chemicals that have the possibility of ruining the
reproductive capacities of all organisms on this earth. Realize in 1996
all this data was emerging and not fully conclusive yet. Since the
books release, scientists, within the Environmental Protection Agency
and independent biologist, have been almost obsessed with testing and
examining the effects of EDs on all sorts of populations. Data exists,
but there are still very few solutions. In 1996, Colborn offered a few
solutions for those now worried about the effects of EDs on themselves
and their families. Colborn suggests that families should eat organic,
to avoid exposure to EDs from pesticides, and not microwave food in
plastic containers, to avoid releasing EDs from the plastic, but there
is not a clear solution to EDs that she can suggest at this point.
Information on this page taken from the Our Stolen Future website and the book
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Last updated: 5/2/2006
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