Endocrine disruptors Archives

Most food products are now packaged in plastic. German researchers have now shown that plasticisers can enter the body, disrupt hormone production, and cause people to gain weight. EURACTIV Germany reports.

The Danish consumer rights organisation Forbrugerrådet Tænk wants to keep cosmetics regulation out of the Transatlantic free trade negotiations, saying it is worried that the EU will "sell out" its strict standards.

A new online guide by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) promises to offer “plain English” information about the hazard profiles of thousands of chemicals, offering a new tool for citizens to hold companies and regulators to account.

The General Court of the European Union on Wednesday (16 December) backed Sweden, saying that the European Commission breached EU law by failing to publish a definition for hormone-affecting chemicals or 'endocrine disrupters'.

The European Parliament overwhelmingly rejected the Commission's plans to allow the recycling of PVC plastics containing DEHP, a hormone disruptor banned in the EU since February 2015. Our partner Journal de l'Environnement reports. 

An investigation has found that the majority of French lettuce contains traces of hormone disrupting chemicals, some of which are banned. Journal de l'Environnement reports. 

A ruling by the French Constitutional Council has undermined the country's ban on Bisphenol A. France's highest court ruled that manufacturers can continue export products that contain the substance. EURACTIV France reports. 

The European Union published its public consultation on hormone disrupters on Friday 24 July. Europe’s trading partners fear the economic impact of tighter regulation, Journal de l'environnement reports. 

The European Commission’s drive to simplify legislation for businesses – the Better Regulation Agenda – has come under fire from trade unions for blocking EU laws that could save thousands of lives per year.

The French Council of State has questioned the constitutionality of the country’s ban on Bisphenol A in food packaging, following a request from the plastics industry. The chemical was outlawed in January this year. EURACTIV France reports. 

Vytenis Andriukaitis, the EU's Health and Food Safety Commissioner, passionately defended the European Commission's role in a dispute over delayed proposals to regulate hormone-affecting chemicals, telling a Brussels event that "my services are not highway robbers with knifes in their hands".

The European Commission and the chemicals industry have rejected claims, revealed by leaked emails in a new NGO report, that they actively sought to slow down work on the definition of criteria for regulating hormone disrupting chemicals.

A growing number of officials in the European Commission's health unit are complaining that health and food safety legislation is being delayed due to slow decision-making from Frans Timmermans, the Commission's First Vice-President in charge of Better Regulation.

As many as 31 pesticides with a value running into billions of pounds could have been banned because of potential health risks, if a blocked EU paper on hormone-mimicking chemicals had been acted upon, the Guardian has learned.

Green chemicals NGO Chemsec included nearly 30 new chemicals on a list of harmful substances that the EU should regulate in order to curb health risks and water contamination.

EXCLUSIVE / Plans to crack down on endocrine disruptors and illegal timber being imported into the EU, were buried by the outgoing President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and his secretary-general Catherine Day, according to a senior EU source.

Hormonally active substances have been blamed for conditions like infertility and cancer, but they can still be found in pesticides and every-day products like food packaging and cosmetics, causing the EU to discuss uniform regulation and attempt to balance consumer fears and economic interests. EURACTIV Germany reports.

After pressure from the European Commission and the outcome of a related court case, the Danish government has decided to scrap its planned ban on four phthalates, a group of chemicals used to soften plastic.

Paris has placed the EU’s endocrine disruptor strategy on the agenda of a meeting of environment ministers on Thursday (12 June), saying the effects of some chemicals on the human body are now sufficiently documented and call for urgent action at the European level.

Sweden will sue the European Commission to force it to speed up work on identifying and banning chemicals some researchers say may disrupt human hormones and cause disease, the environment minister said on Thursday (22 May).

The French parliament’s committee on European affairs has published a report on the European strategy on endocrine-disrupting chemicals which calls on the EU to react urgently to the matter.

Sweden's government is considering suing the European Commission for stalling on criteria which are required to stop hormone-affecting substances, says the minister for the environment, Lena Ek.

Seventeen scientists who publicly criticised EU plans to regulate endocrine-disrupting chemicals have been linked to regulated industries, according to Environmental Health News.

With inadequate reporting of information, corporations are undermining European chemical safety and jeopardising the fundamental principle of the EU's chemicals law REACH “no data, no market”, according to a report by the environmental law group ClientEarth.