The Environmental Protection Agency is developing a program to
assess whether chemicals can cause harmful effects on people by
disrupting their endocrine system, the hormone-secreting glands
that regulate important bodily functions such as blood-sugar
levels.
Some scientists have suggested that such harmful chemicals,
known as "endocrine disruptors," are prevalent among the
chemicals with which we come into contact, and that they may
cause problems such as low sperm count in mature males and
premature sexual development in young girls. Congress took up
this issue and enacted legislation that called upon the EPA to
establish an endocrine disruptor (ED) screening program and to
adhere to an ambitious timetable.
The EPA established the now defunct Endocrine Disruptor
Screening and Testing Advisory Committee (EDSTAC) and charged
it with coming up with an appropriate battery of tests for
assessing pesticides, industrial chemicals, and environmental
contaminants. Unfortunately, EDSTAC's proposed battery relies
heavily on animal tests. Thousands of chemicals would be run
through this battery, unproven in its relevance as an ED
screen, making the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP)
one of the largest animal testing exercises in history.
Animal protectionists and sympathetic scientists have
criticized EDSTAC's proposed battery on several grounds: It is
based on an unproven hypothesis about widespread harm to people
from endocrine disruptors; it has never been validated for the
purpose of ED screening; and it ignores alternative approaches.
Moreover, key meetings of the Endocrine Disruptor
Standardization and Validation Task Force, formed to develop,
standardize, and validate the EDSTAC-recommended screens and
tests, took place behind closed doors and without adequate
public input. A new panel has been created, including people
from the animal protection community who have been involved in
this issue.
