Humans of all ages interact with their environment on a daily basis and are
thus exposed to a variety of both man-made and naturally occurring chemica
ls through the air they breath, the water they drink and the food they eat.
The potential for exposure to environmental contaminants to impact the fun
ction of the reproductive system and affect normal development of the repro
ductive tract has become an area of increasing concern at all levels of soc
iety. Environment Canada and Health Canada jointly organized a workshop to
review the current state of knowledge on endocrine disrupting compounds (ED
Cs) and to establish a national science agenda on the scientific assessment
of EDCs. This report summarizes the key scientific literature pertaining t
o the role of EDCs in a number of selected human reproductive/developmental
outcomes. Change in the frequency of health outcome trends, epidemiologica
l evidence of an association between the health outcome of concern and expo
sure to EDCs, and mechanistic evidence of receptor-mediated effects were th
e criteria used to evaluate the strength of the evidence. While it cannot b
e concluded that EDCs cause reproductive effects in the general Canadian po
pulation, the weight of evidence provides cause for continued concern.