Scientifically unfounded precaution drives European Commission's recommendations on EDC regulation, while defying common sense, well-established science and risk assessment principles

Wolfgang Dekant,James P Kehrer

doi:10.1016/j.toxlet.2013.07.010

Abstract

We, the undersigned editors of prominent journals of pharmacology and toxicology, are drawing your attention to the imminent decisions by the European Commission to enforce a regulatory framework for so-called endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). The currently drafted framework is based on virtually complete ignorance of all well-established and taught principles of pharmacology and toxicology, of opinions raised by the European Commission’s own competent expert authority (European Food Safety Authority (EFSA, 2013)), and of critical statements made by member countries, while avoiding asking for support from the European Commission’s own scientific expert committees.

Highlights

We, the undersigned editors of prominent journals of pharmacology and toxicology, are drawing your attention to the imminent decisions by the European Commission to enforce a regulatory framework for so called endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs)
The mode of action concept implies the necessary existence of a threshold as experimentally proven for numerous other non genotoxic agents including EDC’s
Endocrine systems play a fundamental role in the physiological response to changes in the environment with the aim of keeping an organism’s biology within the homeostatic space

Summary

Introduction

The undersigned editors of prominent journals of pharmacology and toxicology, are drawing your attention to the imminent decisions by the European Commission to enforce a regulatory framework for so called endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). As emphasized by others before, “endocrine disruption” is not a toxicologically defined endpoint but a mode of action that may or may not result in adverse effects.

Results

Conclusion