EDC-MixRisk – Safe chemicals for future generations

EDC-MixRisk representative offered our scientific competence and interest in the EDC area to the commission on a meeting DG Santé. The meeting ended with a route forward for science to policy interaction.

The 2^nd of December, Professors Barbara Demeneix, Carl-Gustaf Bornehag and Åke Bergman from EDC-MixRisk met with Mr. Michael Flueh, Head of Unit Pesticides and Biocides at Directorate General for Health and Food Safety, DG SANTE. Novel data on EDC where presented and EDC-MixRisk researchers also managed to raise important questions regarding EDCs, see below. They also and stressed the importance of mixtures toxicity of EDCs for human health and wildlife safety of chemicals.

– Åke Bergman was satisfied with the meeting: We offered our scientific competence and interest in the EDC area to the commission as a route forward for in-depth and continuous science to policy interaction.

Critically important questions regarding EDCs

The following questions were raised by EDC-MixRisk at the meeting but the time did unfortunately limit the discussion. Hence the questions are only raised here with some explanatory text from the EDC-MixRisk.

Controversy in science on EDCs

As active scientists in the field of ED we do not experience a controversy in the science on ED. There are some different interpretation of data strengths and agreements on lack of enough of data to certify some conclusions. What is DG Santé’s definition of “controversy” and when it is appropriate to use this wording in the context of ongoing work to find solutions to find criteria for management of EDCs?

Need of Causality – Evidence based decisions?

How DG Santé see the requests for application of “causality”, as raised by some stakeholders in the debate on endocrine disruptors. What does DG Santé mean by “evidence based decisions” and when it is appropriate to use this wording?

The potency of EDCs is under debate.

What is DG Santé interpretation of “potency” of EDCs and when is it appropriate to apply the concept of “potency” in the context of ongoing work to find solutions to find criteria for management of EDCs?