Drinking water with uranium below the U.S. EPA water standard causes estrogen receptor-dependent responses in female mice.

Background: The deleterious impact of uranium on human health has been linked to its radioactive and heavy metal-chemical properties. Decades of research has defined the causal relationship between uranium mining/milling and onset of kidney and respiratory diseases 25 years later.

Objective: We investigated the hypothesis that uranium, similar to other heavy metals such as cadmium, acts like estrogen.