Daily Debriefing
A team of researchers at the Dartmouth Medical School has found that small quantities of arsenic, similar to amounts found in the drinking water of some regions in the United States, can suppress the activity of key hormones involved in human development, including testosterone and estrogen. The study, funded by grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, showed that consuming arsenic can prevent the hormones from binding to their specific receptors. Although the researchers focused on two hormone receptors in frogs, both receptors are also essential to human development. The study will be published in the upcoming edition of Environmental Health Perspectives and appeared on the journal's website on Oct. 26.