Environmental hormones can harm organisms in two ways, states Wang Chen-hsung, deputy director of the EPA's National Institute of Environmental Analysis: "Some environmental hormones have chemical structures similar to estrogens [female sex hormones], and the commands they transmit can cause feminine traits to appear in male organisms.
至於環境荷爾蒙對生物造成的傷害，可以分成幾種，環保署環境檢驗所副所長王正雄解釋，「某些環境荷爾蒙的化學結構類似女性荷爾蒙，會傳遞雌性指令，就造成雄性生物出現雌性特徵。