Endocrine Disruptors: What They Are, Where They Hide, and How I’ve Cut Them Down

2021. A breast cancer diagnosis. What now? I thought to myself… well, I’ve turned that health scare into a total health reset, and naturally that included examining what I put on my face, in my hair and all over my body.

I’m a television presenter so I’ve used make-up and beauty products throughout my career. And I admit to being a sucker of a consumer. The claims and the promises all landed softly into my welcoming ears! Anti-aging, Vitamin C, lifting, plumping, glowing… I didn’t think twice about the claims that seemed ‘sciency enough’, or the greenwashing ‘clean/natural/toxin free’ straplines. Now I know that many of the scientists are hired hands, paid handsomely by huge beauty conglomerates to make these statements. And those case studies? The customers telling us how their wrinkles got visibly better after a few months of use? Models. Paid to participate in ‘realistic’ campaigns. One of my friends has an agency that supplies these people.

You might be surprised by where EDCs hide. Plastic water bottles. The lining inside a tin of tomatoes. My moisturiser. That’s where you can find them. Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals get in through the gaps you’re not watching.

What they actually are

Endocrine disruptors are chemicals – some natural, most synthetic – that interfere with your hormones. Not in a dramatic, immediate way. More like a slow, low-level interference with the body’s signalling system.

Your endocrine system is a complex network of glands and organs that runs on precision. It’s in charge of creating and releasing hormones to maintain countless bodily functions by secreting hormones into the bloodstream from glands throughout the body. The hormones travel to specific target organs. Ovaries, for example (located on both sides of the uterus in women), contain the eggs necessary for reproduction and they also produce oestrogen and progesterone. The testes in men (the pouch that hangs suspended outside the male body, between the legs) produce testosterone and sperm.

Tiny amounts of hormones carry big instructions – grow, rest, reproduce, store fat, release it. Endocrine disruptors mimic those hormones, block them, or scramble the message entirely. And the research links this disruption to things I care about a lot: fertility, metabolism, thyroid function, and cancer risk – particularly hormone-sensitive cancers.

The part that really shifted my thinking? These chemicals don’t need to be present in large doses to cause harm. Some of the effects are more pronounced at very low exposure levels. Which means the “it’s only a tiny amount” reassurance doesn’t really hold up.

What the science actually says about health effects

This is where I want to be honest rather than alarmist, because the research is still evolving. And while we might like to think that science is hard and fast – it is ever evolving and there will almost always be an opposing hypothesis. But from whom? And who is funding the studies?

What’s reasonably well established: exposure to endocrine disruptors is associated with reduced fertility in both men and women, earlier puberty in girls, increased risk of metabolic conditions including type 2 diabetes and obesity, and elevated risk for hormone-sensitive cancers – breast, uterine, ovarian, prostate.

What’s harder to unpick: we’re exposed to hundreds of these chemicals simultaneously, not one at a time. Studying their combined effect – what researchers call the “cocktail effect” – is genuinely difficult. So the science tends to look at individual chemicals in isolation, which probably underestimates the total picture.

What that means practically: we don’t need certainty to take sensible precautions. And there are things you can do today that cost nothing but a bit of attention.

How I’ve actually reduced my exposure

I’m not going to pretend I’ve created a perfectly clean home. I haven’t. But I’ve made changes that were mostly straightforward once I understood the reasoning behind them.

In the kitchen

Switch out plastic food storage for glass or stainless steel. This was the change I found easiest and most satisfying. Glass containers for leftovers, a stainless steel water bottle, ceramic or cast iron for cooking. If you use non-stick pans, check whether they contain PFAS coatings – older Teflon pans are the main concern, particularly if they’re scratched.

Never heat food in plastic. This feels worth repeating. Even containers labelled microwave-safe can still leach chemicals when heated.

For tins, either look for BPA-free lining options or shift to jarred goods where possible. I now buy a lot more in glass jars and find them easier to store anyway. But beware of the plastic materials or coatings in the lids – and my tip: I never put the lids of my containers or the jars in the dishwasher.

Filter your drinking water. A good quality filter (reverse osmosis or carbon block) will remove PFAS, pesticide residues, and other contaminants including microplastics from tap water. This matters more in some areas than others – if you’re curious about your local supply, the Drinking Water Inspectorate publishes data for England and Wales.

With food

Eat organic where you can, prioritising the produce that tends to carry the highest pesticide load when conventionally grown – in the UK, strawberries, spinach, apples, grapes, peppers, and tomatoes are consistently at the top of that list. If you can’t go fully organic, the Environmental Working Group’s Clean Fifteen list shows you where it matters less. I use bicarbonate of soda to soak my veggies when I can’t get organic (‘how much?!!’)

Reduce processed and packaged food. Not because of the food itself (although that’s a good reason), but because of the packaging. Plastic-wrapped food, fast food containers, microwave bags – all potential PFAS sources.

With personal care products

This is where I’ve spent the most time and where I think the biggest gains are.

Look for paraben-free and fragrance-free products, or products that list actual botanical ingredients rather than synthetic fragrance blends. The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database is genuinely useful for checking specific products. It’s important to look for concrete certifications rather than buzzwords on the bottle. The Soil Association COSMOS Organic or MADE SAFE badges are comforting to me – they strictly prohibit endocrine disruptors across their entire supply chains.

I’ve become fairly boring about this – mostly simple ingredients, nothing that smells aggressively of anything. Some of my friends find this irritating. I’ve made my peace with that. On here you’ll find a few of my favourite brands that I use and rate. Skin Diligent is one of the few brands in the world that does endocrine disruption testing on their final products – a genuine badge of credibility. The founder Tule Park created the brand when her teenage daughter was prescribed the birth control pill for mild acne. “This is wrong!” she thought to herself. In my experience, founders driven by a personal story deliver the best products and services.

That extra step – testing the finished formula rather than just the ingredient list – gives an added layer of confidence. It’s not that other clean brands aren’t doing good work, it’s that this particular verification closes a loop I didn’t know was open. Their Cellular Hydration Serum and Vitamin C Serum in Oil are two I keep coming back to – the Exosome Advanced Night Cream is also worth a look if overnight skin recovery is something you’re thinking about.

In the home

Dust is a significant but overlooked route of exposure – particularly for PFAS from carpets, upholstery, and electronics. Regular vacuuming with a HEPA filter and wet-mopping hard floors reduces the load meaningfully. I have some air purifiers in our family bedrooms. We live in central London where air pollution is high.

Stain-resistant sprays, waterproofing products, and most conventional fabric softeners are worth avoiding. Air fresheners – whether plug-in, spray, or candle-based – are a phthalate delivery system wearing a pleasant smell.

Open windows when you can. Indoor air quality is often worse than outdoor – even in polluted towns and cities, because the wind is blowing through from different parts of the world – particularly in well-insulated modern homes. Think carpet glue, wall paints and fire retardant furniture.

With clothing

This one might surprise you. Waterproof and water-resistant outdoor clothing is often treated with PFAS. How many of those do I have in my cupboard after decades of making outdoor-based television programmes? Some brands are moving towards PFAS-free alternatives – it’s worth checking before you buy. Washing new synthetic clothing before wearing it for the first time reduces chemical transfer from dyes and treatments. I use a Guppyfriend bag to capture and filter out the microplastics that shed in the wash – and it’s a good way to separate your sports clothes and outdoor wear that you haven’t managed to swap out yet. It also helps prevent microfibres getting into our waterways.

Where they hide: the full ingredient list

If you want to go a level deeper, these are the specific chemicals worth knowing about and scanning for on a label.

BPA (Bisphenol A)

Found in hard plastics (the polycarbonate kind) and the epoxy resin lining the inside of food and drink cans. When you heat food in plastic containers, or store acidic foods like tomatoes in tins, BPA can leach into what you’re eating. Many products now say “BPA-free,” which is progress – but some of the chemicals used to replace BPA (BPS, BPF) are showing similar concerns in early research.

Phthalates (often hidden under “Fragrance” or “Parfum”)

These make plastics soft and flexible, and they turn up in an extraordinary number of places: synthetic fragrances, nail polish, hairspray, vinyl flooring, food packaging. They’re one of the reasons I’ve moved away from anything heavily scented. In personal care products specifically, phthalates are plasticising chemicals used to make fragrances stick to the skin and prevent nail polishes from cracking. Because loophole laws allow companies to protect “proprietary scent blends,” they’re rarely listed by name – they mask themselves as generic “Fragrance” on ingredient lists instead. Heavily linked to thyroid hormone suppression, decreased fertility, and metabolic disruption.

PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances)

The “forever chemicals.” Called that because they don’t break down – in the environment or in the body. They’re used in non-stick cookware, water-resistant clothing, stain-resistant upholstery, and fast food packaging. Linked to thyroid disruption, immune function changes, and elevated cancer risk.

Parabens (Methyl-, Ethyl-, Propyl-, Butyl-)

Preservatives used across cosmetics and personal care products – cheap synthetic ingredients used to prevent bacterial growth in liquid foundations, concealers, and mascaras. They’re easy to spot on an ingredient label: methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben. Parabens are structurally similar to oestrogen – they bind to oestrogen receptors in the body, triggering cellular pathways that can lead to reproductive toxicity, menstrual irregularities, and a higher risk of hormone-sensitive conditions. They’ve been found in breast tissue, which doesn’t prove causation, but it’s enough to make me read the label.

Pesticides and herbicides

Atrazine is one of the most studied. It’s widely used in conventional agriculture and has shown up in tap water in some areas. Organophosphates are another group worth knowing about, particularly in relation to children’s neurological development.

Chemical UV filters (Oxybenzone, Octinoxate, Homosalate)

Sunscreen agents frequently added to everyday BB creams, tinted moisturisers, and chemical lip balms to provide SPF. Oxybenzone and Homosalate behave as potent anti-androgens and oestrogen mimics. They have been shown to alter thyroid axis function and can persist in the bloodstream for weeks after a single application.

Synthetic antioxidants (BHA and BHT)

Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) are chemical stabilisers used to stop oils and pigments in lipsticks and cream blushes from going rancid. The European Chemicals Agency flags these compounds for interfering with normal hormone synthesis and release – they can destabilise reproductive hormones and mimic thyroid axis imbalances.

Triclosan

An antimicrobial agent used in cream-to-powder cosmetics, liquid eye products, and setting sprays to extend shelf life. The Endocrine Society – the world’s oldest and largest global organisation dedicated to endocrine research, made up of over 18,000 physicians and scientists from more than 120 countries – directly warns that triclosan alters thyroid hormone metabolism and drops circulating levels of crucial reproductive hormones including testosterone.

Resorcinol

A pigment and binding chemical sometimes hidden in eyebrow gels, root cover-up sprays, and acne-treating cosmetics. Resorcinol directly targets the thyroid gland by disrupting the synthesis of thyroid enzymes, which can lead to hypothyroidism and metabolic deceleration.