In a press release published on April 12, 2016 the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) informs about a two-day expert meeting on endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that took place on April 11-12, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. The meeting was closed to the public and hosted 25 scientists from Europe, the U.S., and Japan to discuss “the basic principles and open questions on the assessment of endocrine disruptors.” The questions discussed at the meeting included: i) How should endocrine disruptors be defined in the regulatory context of health assessment?, ii) Which sources of uncertainty influence the regulatory decision-making process?, and iii) What adverse effects can already be documented using the existing investigation methods?

“Agreement on the basic scientific principles is an important precondition for the definition of uniform criteria on EU level for the future health-related assessment of substances and products with endocrinologically harmful properties,” the BfR stated. The findings of the meeting shall be published on the BfR website as well as in a scientific journal. Further, the meeting results could serve “the EU Commission in its task of compiling regulatory criteria for the identification of endocrine disruptors in pesticides and other chemicals and products,” the BfR announced.

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BfR (April 12, 2016). “Endocrine disruptors: Scientific discussion on the basic principles for the assessment of substances that influence the hormonal system.

ChemSec (April 12, 2016). “Attempt to find scientific consensus on endocrine disrupting chemicals announced by German agency.

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