Related Information

Overview of Policy Initiatives Relating to EDCs

An Emerging Environmental & Human Health Issue: The Science

Within The European Union

 



AN EMERGING ENVIRONMENTAL & HUMAN HEALTH ISSUE

Executive Summary

Background Information
Wildlife -- and humans -- are exposed daily to many different synthetic chemical compounds that, even in small doses, can disrupt development of the reproductive, immune, nervous, and endocrine systems of humans and wildlife by mimicking hormones, blocking the action of hormones, or by other interference with the endocrine system. Hormones play a key role in sexual differentiation and development of the brain, behaviour and intelligence.

Identified so far are some 51 different compounds present in many pesticides, some heavy metals, some synthetic organochlorines used and released in industrial processes and some substances contained in plastics. Scientists think that more such substances will be identified in the future.

When these substances are present at critical development stages they can disrupt the construction of the endocrine, reproductive, immune and nervous system of a developing organism. The most sensitive life stages are the embryo, fetus and newborn. In most cases, the changes caused by the disruption are delayed and irreversible.

The Science
Prominent scientists have concluded that many wildlife populations are already affected by these endocrine disrupting chemicals. WWF has played a lead role in facilitating development of scientific networks studying the endocrine disruption phenomenon. WWF US Senior Conservation Scientist, Dr. Theo Colborn, has been instrumental in organizing multidisciplinary scientific conferences attended by the leading scientific experts in the field.

Human Health Impacts
Scientists agree that human beings are also being affected by endocrine disrupting chemicals. Reproductive effects reported in wildlife should be of concern to humans where they share exposure to the same resources, for example, contaminated fish. Evidence of lowered human sperm counts in industrialized regions and significant increases in testicular cancer, breast cancer, as well as of cases of undescended testes and endometriosis, is heightening the concern.

New evidence about potential human health impacts is especially worrisome because it underscores the exquisite sensitivity of the developing nervous system to chemical disturbances that result in functional abnormalities, such as neurological problems, in telligence deficits and behavioural abnormalities.

Raising Awareness about EDCs
Without a doubt one of the most influential books of the 20th century will turn out to be Our Stolen Future (Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival?). Dr. Theo Colborn tells the fascinating endocrine disruptor story in this new book, coauthored with Dianne Dumanoski and Dr. John Peterson Myers, which is attracting major media attention wherever it is published. Our Stolen Future is now available in English, German, French, Norwegian and Spanish and will soon be available in Dutch/Flemish, Japanese, Korean, Polish and Swedish.

Policy Initiatives Concerning EDCs
Many important policy initiatives on endocrine disrupting chemicals have been commenced during the last 2 years. Some of the more important are initiatives on research coordination (Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS), OECD, US EPA and EC), initiatives on phasing out and eliminating Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs: IFCS, UNEP, Mediterranean Regional Sea and UN ECE Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution Conventions), initiatives on toxics use reduction (IFCS, OECD, North Sea and NE Atlant ic fora, and the Ramsar wetlands convention).

Precautionary Principle = Prevention
The problem is very urgent. At Wingspread I prominent scientists agreed: "Unless the environmental load of synthetic hormone disruptors is abated and controlled, large scale dysfunction at the population level is possible."

Given the state of science, the ability to accurately quantify and contrast risks of EDCs, in all the combinations encountered in the real world, is probably centuries away. Indeed, scientists are just now attempting to develop a first generation of in vitro assays able to detect the capacity of a chemical to bind or block hormone receptors.

Thus, the only way forward is pollution prevention and reduction of toxics at source; for example through cleaner production methodologies, including cleaner agricultural production.

Policy Recommendations

  • Governments must legally require industries to provide information for inventories of toxic chemical releases and toxics in products.

  • Governments should implement national pesticide reduction programmes -- to reduce the use of, and reliance on, synthetic chemical pesticides -- which are based upon consultation with, and the participation of, the interested stakeholders such as farmers, retailers, consumers groups, environmental groups, and agrochemical manufacturers.

  • All chemicals which are released into the environment should be tested throughout a minimum of two generations for a wide variety of effects including reproductive, immunological, endocrinological, and neurological endpoints. Chemicals should be assumed guilty of endocrine disruption until proven innocent.


Copyright 1997, The World Wide Fund For Nature