ENDOCRINE DISRUPTING CHEMICALS AND WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

It is beyond a doubt that endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) impact the health of humans, animals and the environment globally. Surprisingly, we still don’t know exactly how EDCs can harm female reproductive health. This is one of the reasons that we currently have no good test methods and regulatory procedures to address this. The European Commission has funded eight research projects to improve test methods for EDC identification. One of these projects is called FREIA: “Female Reproductive toxicity of Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs): a human evidence-based screening and Identification Approach”, after the Nordic goddess of fertility. This factsheet gives an overview of what is currently known about EDCs and their impact on women’s reproductive health. It also highlights the challenges to adequately regulate EDCs in European chemical regulations and how FREIA aims to improve this.