By Janet Raloff
From Montreal, at a meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
Preliminary data indicate that some of the compounds used to keep water from soaking into raincoats, grease from sopping through microwave-popcorn bags, and foods from sticking to cookware have another notable attribute: They can act like estrogen, the primary female-sex hormone.
Recent studies have shown that traces of these ubiquitous coatings, called perfluorinated compounds, regularly turn up in foods and even in human blood.