Published in the October 2016 Lancet, researchers have found that exposure to five endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) cost the U.S. economy $340 billion in health care costs and lost wages each year, including direct treatment costs and indirect costs of lost productivity and earnings.

EDCs are are found in everyday products, such as furniture containing flame retardants, plastics, personal hygiene products, and organophosphate pesticides. This family of chemicals is just one many chemicals with possible links to disease examined by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a nationwide data collection program started in the 1960s through the Center for Disease Control that examines health and nutrition statistics. Diseases linked to EDC exposure and included in the cost analysis included autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, obesity, diabetes, heart and vascular disorders, and endometriosis.

Europeans have a lower chemical burden than individuals living in the United States, likely because of stricter chemical regulations and adherence to the precautionary principle - a principle that advises to take extra precautions when there is uncertainty surrounding the environmental or health impact of a chemical found on the market, as illustrated by a similar economic analysis of disease burden and costs of exposure to EDCs.

[Source: Reuters]