E-Mail WASHINGTON--Low doses of propylparaben--an estrogen-like chemical used as a preservative in personal care products and foods--can alter pregnancy-related changes in the breast in ways that may reduce the normal protection against breast cancer that pregnancy hormones convey, according to a new study being published in the Endocrine Society's journal Endocrinology. These results, from an animal study that also will be presented at ENDO 2021, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting, lend evidence that propylparaben is an endocrine-disrupting chemical, the researchers say. An endocrine-disrupting chemical interferes with the actions of hormones in the body. These chemicals can affect hormone-sensitive organs such as the mammary gland, the milk-producing duct in the breast, said the study's senior author Laura N. Vandenberg of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass.