In 1996 an early key scientific paper that originally raised concerns over endocrine disruptors was retracted after the author was found to have misconducted the research. Subsequent studies have demonstrated that some microplastics do act as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), physiologically or chemically mimicking naturally occurring human hormones, for examples taking on roles of sex hormones such as estrogen. But while some EDCs do in fact act as potent hormones in the body, these investigations are often based on high dose studies, and synthetic endocrine-disruptors in the environment tend to be less bioactive. So studies in vitro make the physiological effects clear but the role these chemicals play in real human populations is an open and unanswered question. For example investigations into consumption of mussels, a shellfish that is particularly well known to bioaccumulate microplastics, found that the risk of ingestion was fairly minor, with exposure to household dust giving rise to higher levels of microplastic exposure than mussels. Should you be concerned with endocrine disrupting chemicals

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