THE CHALLENGE POSED BY ENDOCRINE-DISRUPTING CHEMICALS

Rapid regulatory developments in the area of environmental endocrine d isruption present a series of potential problems that are identified a nd illustrated with examples taken from the recent literature. A list of priorities is provided, including the need for additional epidemiol ogical and wildlife studies, the derivation of a coordinated testing s trategy, agreement on the toxicities expected of endocrine disrupting agents, and acceptance that whole animal assays will be uniquely criti cal in this area of toxicology. The intrinsic difficulty of attempting to simultaneously study all aspects of endocrine disruption indicates the need to reduce the scope of the problem, which can be achieved by first studying toxicities mediated by sex hormone receptors.