The 2013 Berlaymont Declaration on Endocrine Disrupters, published May 24, 2013 calls for a change in chemical regulation in the European Union, addressing the risks posed by hormone-active substances in everyday consumer products. The declaration has been signed by 89 leading international public health experts, including Food Packaging Forum Foundation board members Professor Miquel Porta and Professor Angel Nadal. The undersigning scientists point to scientific evidence showing that common industrial chemicals have an effect on endocrine systems. They are concerned that human exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may be contributing to high incident chronic diseases like prostate, testicular, breast, ovarian and thyroid cancers, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and linked to declining semen quality in young European men.

One of the declaration’s initiators, Professor Åke Bergman of Stockholm University, Sweden, stated that “although uncertainties remain, European Commission-funded research has greatly contributed to substantiating the plausibility of serious, irreversible harm stemming from endocrine disruptors. Scientific uncertainty should therefore not delay regulatory action.”

Besides calling for regulatory action, the declaration highlights the need for more publicly funded, high quality scientific research on the issue of endocrine disruption and associated health effects. In particular, a focus on exposure assessment and identification of endocrine disruptors is needed, together with more research investigating clinical health outcomes of chronic EDC exposures. The Berlaymont Declaration is named after the EU Commission’s Berlaymont building in Brussels where last year’s EDC conference was held for political stakeholders.

Read more

2013 Berlaymont Declaration on Endocrine Disruptors. Brunel University, May 24, 2013.

Endocrine Disruptors: Current challenges in science and policy (programme and presentations (ZIP)). European Commission conference held 11 and 12 June 2012, Berlaymont building, Brussels.

Share