Banalising the Risk Perception of Endocrine Disruption

“Coffee is an endocrine disruptor!!! So are soybeans!!! And humus!!!”

Posted by riskmonger on June 23, 2016

These are claims the Risk-Monger made last week … and some people mistook my use of an image of a baby (assumedly consuming deadly doses of soy) as a legitimate attack … even coming to the defence of soy. They missed the point. It is not about the actual risk to our hormonal systems from coffee, soy and chick peas – a risk that is extremely low to the point of insignificance (except maybe for newborns). Rather, it is a communications method I would advise risk managers to enforce: what I call imposing the “banalisation of risk perception” on the endocrine disruption debate.

Many with little or no chemistry-toxicology training (ie, most people) have been made afraid of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) by mal-intended activists campaigning against chemical substances like Bisphenol A (BPA) and pesticides. Because there is so little known about how the endocrine system reacts, this uncertainty created a rich opportunity for scare-mongering, especially as it concerns highly emotional and personal issues (ie, my kit or my ability to procreate)......There are no facts involved here; risk perception is emotion-based stemming from cultural narratives that are now fed by the blast-furnace of social media........People smoking a pack of cigarettes a day were refusing to eat chicken with a “justified illogic” (“I choose to smoke this cigarette; I did not choose to eat an infected chicken!”). After the crisis had passed, studies showed there was no increased health risk from the dioxin exposure.................To Read More....