Date:
May 5, 2014
Source:
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Summary:
Empty nets and few species – environmental hormones are believed responsible for the diminishing numbers of fish. How damaging are these substances really, though? Studies that depict a complete picture of the lives of fish provide clues. Environmental hormones can be found for example in colorants and dyes, pesticides, cosmetics, plastics, and in pharmaceuticals. They are molecules that behave like hormones, because they resemble them in their structure. It has been suspected that the substances getting into an organism via the air, the skin, through foodstuffs.


