Quebec research chair leads $1.4 million research in endocrine disruptions

A researcher from the Institut national de recherche scientifique (INRS) will lead the $1.4 million Canada Research Chair in Ecotoxicogenomics and Endocrine Disruptions over the next seven years.

Professor Valérie Langlois has been interested for over 20 years in the harmful effects that endocrine disruptors and other chemical contaminants present in our environment have on animals and humans. 

Endocrine disruptors are substances that mimic the effects of hormones in the body. They can therefore impact fertility and the reproductive system, as well as have effects on diabetes, metabolism, obesity and the neurological system. Some recent studies have linked them to certain types of cancer, including breast and prostate cancer.

Their adverse effects can be observed at very low doses, and prolonged exposure can cause long-term harmful effects not only on those exposed to them, but even on their descendants.

And while some endocrine disruptors are harmless individually, the situation changes when they are combined with other molecules.

“They are difficult to regulate because they are often active at low doses,” recalled Professor Langlois. “And because they are active at low doses, we cannot set a maximum residual in ecosystems.”

Langlois is concerned to note that, over the past ten years, there has been an increase in endocrine disruptors in the environment, despite the numerous warning signals raised by the scientific community about them.

“We need to continue to put resources into recognizing and characterizing them,” she said. “We need tools to reduce them in our ecosystems. For example, in our wastewater, we can check if they are present before returning this water to the environment.”

She emphasizes that her laboratory has developed “ultra-sensitive” cell lines which, when exposed to waste water, can determine whether the endocrine disruptors they contain have actually been neutralized.

Holding a research chair, explains Professor Langlois, allows you to get out of the laboratory and work on all fronts, whether it be public education, regulation or awareness-raising.

“This will be my hobby horse for the next seven years,” she said. “A chair is an opportunity to highlight an environmental issue, but also a public health and environmental health issue.”

It is therefore urgent to act in order to better control the risks that endocrine disruptors represent for living things, the environment and the future of populations, she said.

She believes that it is essential to further raise awareness among the population about this issue in order to create a better balance between social behaviour and the dangers of endocrine disruptors, and that this awareness must be raised from a very young age.

“It’s not because it’s too complicated that we should sweep it under the carpet, quite the contrary,” said Professor Langlois. “It’s because it’s complicated that we need to focus on trying to understand how we can improve the situation.”

But changes are not easy to achieve, added the researcher, who cites bisphenol A as an example.

“BPA was designed as a synthetic estrogen to treat women,” she recalled. “Decades later, it was added to make plastic more flexible. And now we’re surprised that plastic that contains BPA, or all the other substitutes (that have been invented), causes effects? I find that a little absurd.”

And even though we have known for 40 or 50 years that BPA has estrogenic effects, she lamented, “nothing changes.”

She hopes her research chair will help her “break down the silos” in which scientists are often locked in order to foster a dialogue that could lead to the emergence of new solutions.

“The public is more educated, we know that plastic stays in ecosystems, that it becomes microplastics or nanoplastics and that it releases contaminants,” said Professor Langlois. “I am not in a blame-based approach. We need these products and human intelligence is incredible. Couldn’t we improve them so that there are fewer risks for ecosystems?”

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews