Most persistent organic pesticides
are considered to be endocrine
disrupting
Are you aware of what substances are
classified as endocrine disrupting chemicals
(EDC)? Do you carry out any operations
involving EDC?
These are the types of questions that are
being considered by many companies in light of
significant consumer, government and industry
concern for EDC. In 2010, Enhesa organized a
webinar to further delve into this topic. At the
time, North America and the European Union
were taking the global upper hand in attempting to classify, assess and regulate potentially
harmful EDC. The purpose of this article is to
build on the same topic, but provide insight on
some of the more recent regulatory and policy
developments with regard to EDC.
Definition and Classification
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has adopted the
following working definition for an endocrine
disrupting chemical (EDC) and a potential EDC
as agreed upon by an OECD Workshop hosted
by the European Union and World Health Orga-
Enhesa Flash Feb/Mar 2014
nization in Weybridge, UK in December 1996:
- ‘An endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) is
an exogenous substance that causes adverse
health effects in an intact organism, or its progeny, consequent to changes in endocrine function.’
- ‘A potential endocrine disrupting chemical
(EDC) is a substance that possesses properties
that might be expected to lead to endocrine
disruption in an intact organism.’
While a clear definition has been developed and accepted on the international level,
it is less clear which substances can actually
be classified to fit into this definition. In February 2013, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) published a new report to add
clarity on the classification of EDC. The State of
the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals
2012 report provides an update of the scientif-
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