In an open letter to the Chief Scientific Advisor to the European Commission, Anne Glover, toxicologists and pharmacologists describe the European Commission’s (EC’s) recommendation on endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) regulation as scientifically unfounded and over-precautionary. In the letter published online on July 5, 2013 in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, the signatories emphasize that the European Commission’s current EDC regulation plans defy longstanding scientific and regulatory practice. They criticize in particular the potential adoption of an EDC policy, which considers it impossible to set safe limits for EDCs. Further, the supported use of in vitro tests lacks a causal relationship to adversity for identifying ECDs, as the authors argue. They point out that endocrine disruption “is not a toxicologically defined endpoint but a mode-of-action that may or may not result in adverse effects”.
The letter’s signatories include scientists from a variety of European universities and public health institutions, as well as members of scientific advisory committees to the European Commission.
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Reference
Dietrich, D. et al.. "Scientifically unfounded precaution drives European Commission’s recommendations on EDC regulation, while defying common sense, well-established science and risk assessment principles”. Food and Chemical Toxicology (published online July 5, 2013).
