Category: Environmental Fact Sheet
Phthalates
Phthalates and Bisphenol A • Phthalates and BPA are man‐made chemicals called endocrine disruptors. • Phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA) are used for a variety of purposes in plastics and personal care…
Trichloroethylene
What is Trichloroethylene? Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a stable, low-boiling, colorless, photo reactive liquid with a chloroform-like odor. TCE and products containing it have a wide range of applications: • Solvent…
Methotrexate
What is Methotrexate? Methotrexate (MTX) is a trade name for amethopterin, a substance that neutralizes folic acid to inhibit DNA synthesis. What is it used for? MTX is a cancer…
Mercury
What is Mercury? As one of the 92 basic atomic elements, mercury occurs naturally in the environment in both the metallic or elemental state. Metallic mercury is a shiny, silver-white,…
Lead
What is Lead? Lead (Pb) is a soft, malleable blue gray heavy metal that tarnishes in air. It occurs in the environment as many organic and inorganic compounds in addition…
Formaldehyde
What is Formaldehyde? Formaldehyde is a colorless, unstable gas with a suffocating odor. Formaldehyde is a breakdown product of methanol that further breaks down into formic acid. Its commercial use…
Endocrine Disruptors
What are Endocrine Disruptors? In the book, Our Stolen Future, Theo Colborn, Diane Dumanoski and John Peterson Myers have focused the public’s attention on a newly discovered threat from synthetic…
Dursban
What is Dursban? Dursban is a trade name for chlorpyrifos, a broad-spectrum insecticide used to kill a wide variety of insects. Classified as an organophosphate, chlorpyrifos is a contact poison…
Dioxin
What are Dioxins? Dioxins are a family of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin compounds that are found everywhere in the environment, generally at low levels. These large, complex molecules do not easily biodegrade…
For daily information about new research on birth defects, visit our 