The Revised EDC Proposal adopted by EU member States

EU Member States adopt revised EDC proposal in Brussels on 13th December 2017. It has been seen as a step in the right direction, though not enough. The EU Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (SCOPAFF) decided in favour of a revised European Commission proposal on identification criteria for endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs).

Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that can interfere with endocrine (or hormone) systems at certain doses. Their disruptions can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders. Hormones in human system can be derailed by hormone disruptor.

The meeting was convened due to the European Parliament veto on an earlier version of the criteria, which Members of the European Parliament considered was not protective of citizens’ health and an illegal reopening of the pesticides regulation.

The criteria considered partly took into account the European Parliament’s demand by removing a problematic exemption that would have left numerous endocrine disrupting pesticides unaddressed.

There has been concerns about the very high burden of proof required in the criteria that have now been adopted to identify EDCs. This is in the context of growing evidence that human exposure to environmental pollutants such as endocrine disruptors are weighing heavily on public budgets.

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