The Impact of a Drop of Eye Drops - Environmental Hormone Detection Technology and Scientific Awakening (September 1998)

The Impact of a Drop of Eye Drops - Environmental Hormone Detection Technology and Scientific Awakening (September 1998)

In the late 1990s, environmental hormones (endocrine disrupting chemicals) suddenly became a social problem in Japan: In 1997, the Environmental Agency launched "SPEED '98 (Strategic Plan for Environmental Hormones)" and the media reported shockingly on "sex-changing fish" and "effects on children. The media reported shocking stories such as "sex-changing fish" and "effects on children," and citizen movements and corporate responses rapidly expanded. The essence of the problem, however, lay in the technical challenge of how to "detect" the biological effects of extremely small amounts of chemical substances. The analytical methods of the time were limited to PPB (parts per billion), but it was the PPT (parts per trillion) level that caused reproductive abnormalities. It was so severe that it was referred to as "a drop of eye drops in the pool. The National Institute for Environmental Studies, the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health, the Osaka Municipal Institute of
Environmental Science, and others have developed a new test-tube analysis method that utilizes the formation reaction of biological proteins. This technology, which produces results in a short period of time, was revolutionary, although it is limited to 20 substances. The year 1998 was the year that environmental science began to confront the "invisible" with new precision.