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John Ashby,¹ Erik Houthoff,² Sandy J. Kennedy,³ Jim Stevens,⁴ Rémi Bars,⁵ Friedrich W. Jekat,⁶ Pamela Campbell,⁷ Jim Van Miller,⁸ Francis M. Carpanini,⁹ Geoffrey L.P. Randall¹⁰

¹Zeneca, Macclesfield, Cheshire, United Kingdom; ²Akzo Nobel Chemicals, Amersfoort, The Netherlands; ³Unilever, Bedford, UK; ⁴Ciba-Geigy, Basel, Switzerland; ⁵Rhône-Poulenc Agro, Sophia Antipolis, France; ⁶Bayer Ag, Wuppertal, Germany; ⁷Procter & Gamble, Strombeek-Bever, Belgium; ⁸Union Carbide Corporation, Danbury, CT 06817-0001 USA; ⁹European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals, Brussels, Belgium; ¹⁰Zeneca, Brixham, Devon, UK

Abstract

Rapid regulatory developments in the area of environmental endocrine disruption present a series of potential problems that are identified and illustrated with examples taken from the recent literature. A list of priorities is provided, including the need for additional epidemiological and wildlife studies, the derivation of a coordinated testing strategy, agreement on the toxicities expected of endocrine disrupting agents, and acceptance that whole animal assays will be uniquely critical in this area of toxicology. The intrinsic difficulty of attempting to simultaneously study all aspects of endocrine disruption indicates the need to reduce the scope of the problem, which can be achieved by first studying toxicities mediated by sex hormone receptors. Key words: androgens, estrogens, hazard assessment, hormonal disruption, human toxicity, sperm quality. Environ Health Perspect 105:164-169 (1997)

Address correspondence to F.M. Carpanini, European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals, Avenue E. Van Nieuwenhuyse 4, B.6, B-1160, Brussels, Belgium.

The members of the study group considering the issue of endocrine disruption are: G. Randall (Chair) , Zeneca plc ; F.M. Carpanini (Secretary General) , ECETOC ; J. Ashby, Zeneca plc ; R. Bars, Rhone-Poulenc Agro ; P. Campbell, Procter & Gamble ; J. Cooke, DuPont (U.S.) ; C. De Rooij, Solvay ; K. Eide Lunde, Norsk Hyrdro a.s. ; P. Foster, Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology ; C. Hegele-Hartung, Schering ; E. Houthoff, Akzo Nobel Chemicals ; M. Hurtt, DuPont (U.S.) ; T. Hutchinson, Zeneca plc ; J. Jackson, Monsanto Europe S.A. ; F.W. Jekat, Bayer Ag ; S. Kennedy, Unilever ; R. Länge, Schering Ag ; P. McCahon, Rhône-Poulenc (Secteur Agro) ; N. Moore, BP Chemicals Ltd. ; A. Nikiforov, Exxon Biomedical Sciences, Inc. ; D. Pallapies, BASF Ag ; A. Poole, Dow Europe ; A. Sarrif, Du Pont (Deutschland) GmbH ; N. Scholz, Huls Ag ; J. Stevens, Ciba-Geigy ; L. Tattersfield, Shell Research and Technical Center ; J. Tomenson, ICI Epidemiology Unit ; R. van Egmond, Unilever ; J. Van Miller, Union Carbide Corporation.

Received 13 December 1996 ; accepted 9 January 1997.