Brussels, 09/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Joint Research Centre hopes to complete its methodological examination of dangerous chemicals by May 2016. That was what came out of the technical level meeting on endocrine disruptors, open to member states, third countries, MEPs and all interested parties, in Brussels on Friday 6 November.
Context. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interfere with hormone systems, which may lead to harmful effects on human health, such as diabetes, obesity, infertility and some types of cancer. They are to be found, for example, in environmental pollutants and medicines. To comply with the regulations on the placing on the market of biocide products (Regulation 528/2012) and plant protection products (Regulation 1107/2009), the European Commission should have specified scientific criteria for the determination of endocrine-disrupting properties of chemical substances.
Work on this began only in 2014, however, with the publication of a roadmap offering four options defining possible criteria. The first of these is the status quo with the “provisional” criteria set out in the biocides and pesticides directives continuing to apply. The second is for the definition provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) to be used to identify endocrine disruptors and the risks they pose. The third option is to take the WHO/IPCS definition to identify endocrine disruptors and bring in additional categories (active substances, suspected disruptors and proven disruptors) based on the different strength of evidence for fulfilling the WHO/IPCS definition, and the fourth takes the WHO/IPCS definition to identify endocrine disruptors and includes potency as a criterion.
Impact study. The Commission immediately opened an impact study. It charged its scientific committee - the Joint Research Centre - with developing a methodology for defining which chemicals, from a list of some 700, could be considered endocrine disruptors, according to the four definitions. And it assessed the potential impact of removal of these substances from the market on health, the environment, trade, agriculture and the socio-economic impact in general.
At its meeting on 6 November, the JRC reported back on the broad thrust of its methodology, its “decision tree” and data gathered. It said, too, that it had appointed an (unnamed) external contractor to analyse the 700 substances. However, the JRC conclusions will most certainly not provide an established list of endocrine disruptors, Sharon Munn of the JRC made clear.
Lisette van Vliet of the NGO Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) said the meeting had been reasonably positive. When contacted by EUROPE, she regretted, however, that the Commission had not provided assurances that it would make sure there was no double counting with the inclusion of carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic (CMR) substances in its impact assessment. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)