Contribution of European research to endocrine disruptors Original Research Article

The EC Quality of Life Programme (QoL), Key Action 4—Environment and Health is mission oriented and aims, amongst other things, at a reduction of health effects (including allergies) as related to environmental factors, the assessment and reduction of environmental health hazards, and supporting health and environmental policy-making and public information. The Key Action 4 is currently supporting a number of different types of European collaborative projects in the area of endocrine disruptors (EDs). The objectives of these projects are: establishing incidence rates for urogenital malfunctions in male infants including differences in sperm counts among countries and age cohorts (links to hormones in meat, e.g. zearalanol); determining the potential impact of developmental exposure to weak estrogens on the incidence of diseases; characterise the impact of dietary organochlorines on human fertility; the identification of human and environmental exposures to androgenic/antiandrogenic compounds (AACs) to develop new biological effect measures including a risk evaluation; via studying steroidal or anti-steroidal effects during embryonic development, to finally lead to clear concepts for clinical trials; examining the occurrence of mixed esposures to EDs in humans and fish together with the development of new experimental models allowing meaningful extrapolation from animals to humans; toxicological studies and exposure assessments of brominated flame retardants (BFRs); identification of new biomarkers for the assessment of androgen disruption activities of flutamids type chemicals; and a further examination of a multi-cohort study which involved 5800 boys and mothers to shade more light on currently discussed increasing trends of urogenital disorders in males in Europe and the link to the exposure of EDs. An overview of these projects is presented in this paper.