Exposure to bisphenol A advances puberty

Plastics and pesticides are examples of products that contain oestrogenic endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EEDCs, which can interfere with mammalian development by mimicking the action of the sex hormone oestradiol. For instance, the exposure of developing rodents to high doses of EEDCs advances puberty and alters their reproductive function. Low environmental doses of EEDCs may also affect development in humans. Effects have become apparent in humans over the past half century that are consistent with those seen in animals after exposure to high doses of EEDCs, such as an increase in genital abnormality in boys and earlier sexual maturation in girls. Here we show that exposing female mouse fetuses to an EEDC at a dose that is within the range typical of the environmental exposure of humans alters the postnatal growth rate and brings on early puberty in these mice.