The European Union (EU) has had an official strategy to address Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) since the end of 1999. The strategy has helped instigate major funding of EU research projects on EDCs, and two historic new pieces of legislation that will govern and in some cases ban the use of certain EDCs—namely, the REACH law on industrial chemicals management, and the reformed EU Pesticides law. Deriving from these, the approach and assessment by which EDCs will be identified is now underway.
The European Commission has commissioned a report from one of the leading researchers on EDCs, Professor Andreas Kortenkamp, and his team, to assess the state of knowledge about mixtures of chemicals. In addition, the Commission has asked him to provide an updated analysis of the state of knowledge about EDCs. These two reports will inform overlapping strands of policy work.
On this call, Andreas Kortenkamp, PhD, presented some of the latest EU funded research on EDCs and implications for policy makers from a scientific perspective. Gwynne Lyons spoke on the challenges and opportunities related to translating the science into policy, and highlight CHEM Trust’s public interest work in this area. Genon Jensen spoke about the NGO work being done on EDCs, highlighting recent developments in France and Denmark.
Featured Speakers
- Andreas Kortenkamp, PhD, Professor and Head of Centre for Toxicology, School of Pharmacy, University of London
- Gwynne Lyons, Director, CHEM Trust
- Genon Jensen, Executive Director, Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL)
The call was moderated by Michael Lerner, President of Commonweal.