A HIERARCHICAL APPROACH TO THE EVALUATION OF CHEMICALS FOR ESTROGENICAND OTHER ENDOCRINE-DISRUPTING PROPERTIES

The emergence of estrogenicity/endocrine-disruption as an important en dpoint in the toxicological assessment of chemicals presents a series of problems to overcome before regulatory central of such agents can b e enacted. A. framework is presented by which progress in this endeavo ur can be expedited. A hierarchial approach to testing is proposed, to gether with consideration of the types of information required to tran sform test data into human risk estimations. The approach is based bro adly on current methods for defining potential human carcinogens and m utagens, and if found acceptable, would dramatically accelerate regula tory progress on this subject. However, several questions must be answ ered, using focused data, before the approach can be endorsed or trans ferred into a regulatory context. The importance of early consideratio n of all aspects of this complex new toxicity, including the unexpecte d observation of synergism between synthetic estrogens, is emphasized. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.