On 13 July, the Collegium Ramazzini sent a letter to President Barroso and Commissioners Tajani, Potočnik, and Borg outlining the serious concerns in the international scientific community of an impending decision regarding EU Chemicals Policy, specifically regarding EDCs.
The Collegium Ramazzini, which is an international academy of 180 scientists from 35 countries, experts in environmental and occupational health, released a statement calling for new ways to test chemicals and to revise current approaches to risk management.
Europeans are exposed to EDCs, both natural and synthetic, to an extent that is causing adverse health effects such as testicular and breast cancer, decline in sperm counts, reproductive organ deformities, diabetes and obesity. Recent research suggests that the effects can even be transmitted to future generations.
With regards to the REACH authorisation, the Collegium Ramazzini recommends to improve test protocols and expanded test requirements to allow the identification of EDCs, for which a safe threshold cannot be determined at present. The scope of REACH should be extended by default to all EDCs and substances of very high concern (SVHC) and stringent hazard-based evaluation criteria must be used for EDCs.
The letter and statement are available on the Collegium Ramazzini website
