On October 6, 2016 a scientific article on the consensus statement on the scientific principles for the identification of endocrine disrupting chemicals was published in the peer-reviewed journal Archives of Toxicology. The consensus was reached at an international expert meeting organized by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) on April 11-12, 2016 in Berlin, Germany (FPF reported). The invited experts agreed that no potency threshold should be applied in the identification of endocrine disruptors (EDs) (FPF reported), however the existence of dose-thresholds for EDs continues to be debated and requires further, dedicated research according to the consensus statement. The publication further highlights “the difficulty in retrospectively reconstructing ED exposure, insufficient range of validated test systems for EDs, and some issues impacting on the evaluation of the risk from EDs, such as non-monotonic dose–response and thresholds, modes of action, and exposure assessment.” Also, it is noted that the consensus shall “serve as an important basis for the development of regulatory ED criteria.”

On June 15, 2016 the European Commission (EC) proposed criteria to identify EDs in the field of plant protection products and biocides (FPF reported). The EC’s Pesticides and Biocides Committees held discussions on the proposed criteria in September 2016 (FPF reported).

Read more

EurekAlert (October 7, 2016). “Scientific principles for the identification of endocrine-disrupting chemicals: Consensus statement.

Reference

Solecki, R. et al. (2016). “Scientific principles for the identification of endocrine-disrupting chemicals: a consensus statement.Archives of Toxicology (published online October 6, 2016).

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