A TOXICOLOGICALLY BASED WEIGHT-OF-EVIDENCE METHODOLOGY FOR THE RELATIVE RANKING OF CHEMICALS OF ENDOCRINE DISRUPTION POTENTIAL

A toxicologically based predictive scheme is presented for quantitativ ely ranking chemical agents with respect to their capacity to ensure e ndocrine disruption in target species based on short-term bioassays. C riteria providing the predictive framework include: (1) endocrine disr uption as a multistage process, (2) phylogenetic considerations, (3) m odel system, and (4) estrogenic potency. Relative rankings were calcul ated for 15 environmentally relevant agents reported to have endocrine -disrupting effects. The relative ranking process offers a procedure f or assessing the potential of endocrine disruption and for identifying data gaps for specific chemical agents. Although the current scheme i s limited to ''estrogenic'' agents, it is anticipated that future refi nements (e.g., incorporation of antiestrogenic potency data) will impr ove the system. (C) 1997 Academic Press.