On July 27, 2016 the scientific membership organization Endocrine Society responded to the European Commission’s (EC) public consultation on the proposed criteria to identify endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) for plant protection products and biocidal products (FPF reported). In its response, the Endocrine Society stated that the EC’s “narrow criteria for endocrine-disrupting chemicals will make it nearly impossible for scientists to meet the unrealistically high burden of proof and protect the public from dangerous chemicals.” The Society highlights that over 1,300 scientific studies have found associations between exposure to EDCs and adverse health outcomes such as infertility, diabetes, obesity, hormone-related cancers, and neurological disorders (FPF reported). Disregarding this body of evidence, the EC’s “approach would allow chemicals to cause significant harm to populations before the chemicals could be regulated.” In this manner, the EC “has set the European Union on a course to abandon the precautionary principle,” stated Rémy Slama, member of the Endocrine Society’s European Union EDC task force. The Endocrine Society is in support of “a tiered regulatory approach that would rank EDCs based on available scientific evidence.”
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Endocrine Society (July 27, 2016). “Endocrine Society experts concerned EU chemical criteria will not protect public.”
