To those of you who dared to give me this award, I humbly accept it with sincere admiration of your courage and with deep appreciation. However, it is important that I remind you that I did not get here on my own. It took all kinds of people from early on, even prior to the era of endocrine disruption. I have been extremely fortunate to have outstanding mentors and associates like several people in this room who have been close advisors who have patiently watched over me, urging me on, and often times making me behave. I also must acknowledge the essential support from generous foundations and individual donors, and a cadre of aging friends and family. To be truthful, there are some here at this gathering who deserve this award as much, or even more, than I do. It is with great joy that I accept this award for them and those who are not present.

But while I am standing here I would like to ask you to take a few minutes to think about a global health problem that gets little media attention and yet, in my opinion, poses a dire threat to world security and peace by undermining the integrity of future generations and what makes us humane.

Think about this….What a crazy world we live in when almost everyone knows what the acronym ED stands for. Millions have been poured into creating awareness of ED, erectile dysfunction, because it is profitable. This 21st century, sales-pitch strategy called “disease mongering”, has proved good for the bottom line. The irony of all this is that there is another ED out there into which millions have also been poured -- to keep it a secret. That ED is endocrine disruption, which, if the public was to learn about it, the bottom line could shrink.

Endocrine disruption should be at the top of the Most Critical List of technological disasters facing the world today. With little notice, vast volumes and combinations of synthetic chemicals have settled in every environment on the world -- including the womb environment. Synthetic chemicals at very low concentrations in the womb change how genes are programmed, how cells develop, tissues form, and organs function, and thus undermine the potential and survival of developing animals, including humans.

These chemicals, called endocrine disruptors, are in products that have become an integral part of our global lifestyle and economy. And in order to sell the products it is important that the public believes they are safe. Adding fuel to corporate denial is the unwillingness by anyone to accept the fact that every woman -- yes, every woman -- during her reproductive years is walking around with a mixture of chemicals in her body that can not only change her physiology and how she functions, but also can change how her unborn child will be constructed, function, and mature throughout its lifetime. It is a trans-generational concept too preposterous for most people to accept. They would rather forget it. Besides, what can they do about it?

The emergence of the discipline of endocrine disruption stems from years of research around the Great Lakes where it was discovered that trans-generational sharing of synthetic chemicals between wildlife and human mothers and their offspring was putting their youngsters' health at risk. The anomalies in their offspring were the result of synthetic chemicals that caused disturbances of the endocrine system, which controls development and function, and the perpetuation of all species.

The term “endocrine disruption” was coined in 1991, and acceptance of the concept caught on rapidly among academicians and those concerned about the human condition. As scientific evidence amassed about the diverse effects of endocrine disruption and what those effects reflected at the population level, so did efforts increase to deny the evidence and to marginalize the effects on human health by those who benefit economically from the production and use of endocrine disruptors.

Endocrine disruptors not only pose a threat to our ability to reproduce -- they also pose a threat to the quality of the individuals we are able to produce. Statistics today warn us that as we move into the 21st century we are becoming a caretaker society where already too many children from the day they are born need lifetime medication and/or care.

Let me remind you: The American Diabetes Association points out that the incidence of diabetes increased by 14% between 2003 and 2006 and if the trend continues “one in three Americans, and one in two minorities, born in 2007 will develop diabetes in their lifetime. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that one in 166 children born has an autism spectrum disorder and among boys the odds are one in 89; and one in 125 boys are born with hypospadias, a condition where the urethra does not open at the end of the penis. The Harvard School of Public Health estimates that globally “One out of every six children has a developmental disability, usually involving the nervous system. Danish medical doctors report a widespread condition in the northern hemisphere described as the Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome that can be traced back to damage in the womb. The syndrome includes undescended testicles, hypospadias, early onset of testicular cancer, reduced sperm quantity and quality, and impaired fertility. The prestigious journal of The Endocrine Society published the results of a study that showed an age-independent decline in testosterone levels in US men over the past twenty years. Do you suppose that industry knows something they have not been sharing with us? And most disturbing, is the report in the journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health revealing a correlation between the concentration of a widely used plastic compound in the urine of women during their pregnancy and an alteration in the development of their sons' external genitalia. As the concentrations of the plastic increased, the babies experienced a shortening of the distance between the anal opening and the base of their penis, reduced penile volume and length, and based on these two measurements, they had a greater tendency for undescended testicles. These are only some of the disorders that can be of fetal origin that are common in the human population today, that only two generations ago were rare.

Suddenly our government is telling us that almost 50 % of the US population is going to develop diabetes. Does no one realize that the pancreas is an endocrine gland and that it produces a hormone, insulin, and that perhaps diabetes is one those disorders imprinted before birth that is expressed later in life? Why has the government almost completely phased out programs devoted to endocrine disruption? Why was the only laboratory dedicated to endocrine disruption research for over 30 years told to shut down within a month? Why was funding for the National Children's Health Study suddenly cancelled after 6 years and 60 million dollars invested in building the infrastructure just at the stage where mothers were going to be enrolled?

There is not enough time to delve into the many reasons why the government took those steps, but one thing is apparent -- toxicology has failed miserably. And quite frankly I am willing to say that toxicology has failed by design to provide the technology needed to detect endocrine disrupting chemicals. Unfortunately, when the government moved forward to develop screens and assays to detect endocrine disruptors, it turned to the toxicologists to solve the problem, not those who developed the laboratory techniques to discover endocrine disruptors.

The list of chemicals that have been identified as endocrine disruptors is mushrooming as independent academicians around the world have begun to look at the safety of chemicals from an entirely new angle. Most of them are not toxicologists. They have demonstrated that hundreds of widely disseminated industrial chemicals, and deliberately used pesticides, alter the homeostasis of the endocrine system. The truth is that the protocols to test chemicals for their safety and the regulations to assure product safety failed to prevent the use of these chemicals with which we commingle continuously, moment to moment in our homes, schools, places of business, and outdoors.

Until decision makers understand this, there is no way to reverse the increasing dusting of the earth with more of the same and new synthetic chemicals. It is late, but it is time to go back and start over. The new agenda should be driven by prevention, bottom-line free. Governments must give those trained in endocrinology, embryology, developmental biology, epidemiology, biochemistry, demography, medicine and other disciplines -- the resources and the infrastructure to collaborate and produce. And in the decade ahead, the political environment should allow scientists to share with policy makers the implications of their findings without being frowned upon by their peers or vested interests.

Humankind is approaching the fourth generation of individuals born with the products of modern chemistry in their bodies. At the same time, humankind is facing a pandemic of endocrine related disorders that can seriously alter the quality of life, and the world economy and stability. Scientists have demonstrated that some synthetic chemicals can cause the same disorders that have rapidly become major public health concerns. Society can choose to continue to ignore this problem of its own doing, or it can bite the bullet and start over by placing the problem in the hands of those who understand endocrine disruption and have no vested interest other than that of the well-being of future generations.