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Endocrine disruptors — putting the mechanistic cart before the phenomenological horse

Despite incontrovertible evidence of the harmful effects of endocrine disruptors, a sound public health policy is still absent. Meanwhile, the press has revealed the hindering role of industry lobbyists and conflicts of interest among members of the regulatory bodies. Here, we identify another hindrance; one that stems from current experimental research practices.

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Acknowledgements

This work was conducted as part of the research project “Addressing biological organization in the post-genomic era” which was supported by the International Blaise Pascal Chairs, Region Ile de France (A.M.S: Pascal Chair 2013–2015). Additional support to AMS was provided by Grant R01ES08314 from the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The funders had no role in the content, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. The authors are grateful to C. Schaeberle and N. Hasan for their critical input.

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Correspondence to Ana M. Soto.

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Soto, A.M., Sonnenschein, C. Endocrine disruptors — putting the mechanistic cart before the phenomenological horse. Nat Rev Endocrinol 14, 317–318 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-018-0003-7

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