Endocrine disrupting pesticides (registered and recommended in Iran) and their adverse effects on human health

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), are exogenous (synthetic) chemicals or mixture of chemicals, which interfere with any aspect of the hormones, altering the body's hormonal balance through several different mechanisms. Environmental EDCs include pesticides, plastics, e-waste, fire extinguishers, metals, food additives and personal hygiene products. By disrupting the hormonal balance, these substances lead to abnormalities in growth and reproduction, increase the prevalence of cancers, disrupt nerve growth, growth pattern in children and the function of the immune system. In Iran, out of 400 registered pesticides, about 74 compounds have or are suspected to have endocrine disrupting properties. Out of which, 24 have been deleted from the list and only 50 compounds, i.e., about 12.5 percent, are available in the list of registered pesticides and are being used. Of these, 20 are fungicides (40%), 17 are insecticides (34%) and 13 are herbicides (26%), the list of which is presented in this article.  A large body of evidence has accumulated linking specific conditions to EDC pesticides in wildlife and humans. the hazardous properties of pesticides which are known to have EDC properties are reviewed in order to assess the implications for risk assessment and therefore identification of such pesticides and their adverse effects helps in the diagnosis and treatment of EDC related diseases.