Brussels, 19/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - In a report published on Monday 17 November, the Nordic Council of Ministers, on which Denmark, Finland; Iceland, Norway and Sweden are represented, highlights the impact of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on male reproductive health and their significant cost to health budgets. The report, The Cost of Inaction: Socioeconomic analysis of costs linked to effects of endocrine disrupting substances on male reproductive health, estimates that between 2% and 40% of the costs of treatment for male patients with hormone imbalances could be saved with stricter legislation on endocrine disruptors. This equates to savings of between €59 million and €1.2 billion annually for the European Union.
Endocrine disruptors are chemical substances, naturally occurring or artificial, which are foreign to the body and can interfere with the endocrine, or hormone, system, with harmful effect. The main sources of exposure are water and food but also the air and chemical compounds in certain biocides and pesticides. After several delays in implementing legislation on endocrine disruptors (see EUROPE 11103), the European Commission opened a consultation on 29 September on defining the criteria for identifying these substances in biocide and pesticide legislation. The consultation has left health and environmental organisations largely bewildered and persuaded that this is just another delay to allow the industry once more to block the legislative process by citing the costs that would be incurred if certain categories of biocides and pesticides were banned. In June 2014, the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) published a report pointing out the impact of endocrine disruptors on health budgets, estimating that costs linked to the treatment of illnesses related to exposure to these substances at up to €31 billion per year. The Nordic Council of Ministers report “should provide the final blow to industry lobbying to slow regulatory action on endocrine disrupting chemicals. By putting the portion (of the costs) caused by EDCs at up to 40%, these governments have clearly demonstrated that the costs to male citizens' health from EDC exposure could be very significant, and we therefore shouldn't be using these chemicals”, said Lisettte van Vliet, HEAL's senior policy adviser. (IL)