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One hormone that these chemicals mimic is the female sex hormone estrogen. A study published in the medical journal Pediatrics suggests that an increased prevalence of early puberty among many girls could be linked to estrogen-containing hair products as well as environmental chemicals that mimic estrogen. Children born to women who ingested PCB-contaminated rice oil in Japan some years ago "suffered from physical and mental developmental delays, behavioral problems including hypoactivity and hyperactivity, abnormally small penises, and IQ scores five points below average," Discover magazine reports. Tests performed on children exposed to a high level of PCBs in the Netherlands and in North America revealed similar adverse effects upon their physical and mental development. WHO reports that some 100,000 chemicals are now on the market and that from 1,000 to 2,000 new ones are added each year. Often these chemicals are wrongly declared safe when first released into our environment, as in the case of DDT. Scientists later learned that DDT tends to remain in organisms a long time, which is also the case with other potential toxins. DDT itself, is banned or severely restricted in over 40 countries to date because of its extremely harmful composition and effects. Exposing a male to certain chemicals at a critical time in his development can also have adverse effects. "Experiments have shown," says a report in Discover magazine, "that PCBs applied at just the right time during development can change male turtles and alligators into females or 'intersex' individuals."