The European Commission announced on December 13 that the Standing Committee for Plant, Animals, Food and Feed endorsed revised criteria for the identification of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in plant protection products.
The revised criteria remove an exemption for certain pesticides designed to interfere with the endocrine systems of target organisms, taking into account the views expressed by the European Parliament in an earlier vote, and in alignment with the Endocrine Society’s recommendation. The European Chemicals Agency and the European Food Safety Authority have launched a public consultation “on the draft technical Guidance document to implement the criteria once they become applicable.”
The Endocrine Society welcomes the removal of the loophole for pesticides designed to interfere with endocrine systems. Although this change is a step in the right direction, the criteria for pesticides and biocides currently fall short of what would be required to effectively protect public health for this generation and future ones.
The Society will work with member experts to develop comments on the public consultation to ensure that implementation of the criteria can improve the ability of regulatory agencies to identify and act on EDCs.
For more information on EDCs and the Endocrine Society’s contributions to the process for developing criteria to identify EDCs, please see www.endocrine.org/edc.
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