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Failure to Launch: The Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

It has been 25 years since the U.S. Congress passed the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, an amendment to the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, which mandated that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) test all pesticide chemicals used in food for endocrine disruption. Soon after the law passed,...

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Autores principales: Maffini, Maricel V., Vandenberg, Laura N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9189695/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35707496
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/ftox.2022.908439
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author Maffini, Maricel V.
Vandenberg, Laura N.
author_facet Maffini, Maricel V.
Vandenberg, Laura N.
author_sort Maffini, Maricel V.
collection PubMed
description It has been 25 years since the U.S. Congress passed the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, an amendment to the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, which mandated that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) test all pesticide chemicals used in food for endocrine disruption. Soon after the law passed, EPA established the Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee (EDSTAC) to provide recommendations to the agency on how its Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP) should work. Among them, the committee recommended that EDSP screening should 1) evaluate both human and ecological effects; 2) test for disruption of the estrogen, androgen, and thyroid systems; 3) evaluate pesticide and non-pesticide chemicals; and 4) implement a tiered approach. EPA adopted the recommendations and the EDSP was created in 1998. To date, the EPA has yet to fully implement the law; in other words, it has failed to test all pesticide chemicals for endocrine disruption. Of the small number that have been tested, not a single pesticide chemical has been determined to be an endocrine disruptor, and no regulatory actions have been taken. Here, we review the missed opportunities EPA had to make the EDSP a functional and effective program aimed at protecting human health and the environment. Two reports by the EPA’s Office of Inspector General from 2011 to 2021 provide the framework for our discussion.
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spelling pubmed-91896952022-06-14 Failure to Launch: The Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Maffini, Maricel V. Vandenberg, Laura N. Front Toxicol Toxicology It has been 25 years since the U.S. Congress passed the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, an amendment to the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, which mandated that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) test all pesticide chemicals used in food for endocrine disruption. Soon after the law passed, EPA established the Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee (EDSTAC) to provide recommendations to the agency on how its Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP) should work. Among them, the committee recommended that EDSP screening should 1) evaluate both human and ecological effects; 2) test for disruption of the estrogen, androgen, and thyroid systems; 3) evaluate pesticide and non-pesticide chemicals; and 4) implement a tiered approach. EPA adopted the recommendations and the EDSP was created in 1998. To date, the EPA has yet to fully implement the law; in other words, it has failed to test all pesticide chemicals for endocrine disruption. Of the small number that have been tested, not a single pesticide chemical has been determined to be an endocrine disruptor, and no regulatory actions have been taken. Here, we review the missed opportunities EPA had to make the EDSP a functional and effective program aimed at protecting human health and the environment. Two reports by the EPA’s Office of Inspector General from 2011 to 2021 provide the framework for our discussion. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-05-30 /pmc/articles/PMC9189695/ /pubmed/35707496 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/ftox.2022.908439 Text en Copyright © 2022 Maffini and Vandenberg. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Toxicology
Maffini, Maricel V.
Vandenberg, Laura N.
Failure to Launch: The Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
title Failure to Launch: The Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
title_full Failure to Launch: The Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
title_fullStr Failure to Launch: The Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
title_full_unstemmed Failure to Launch: The Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
title_short Failure to Launch: The Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
title_sort failure to launch: the endocrine disruptor screening program at the u.s. environmental protection agency
topic Toxicology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9189695/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35707496
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/ftox.2022.908439
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