Summary
As a result of public concerns about hormone-disrupting chemicals – such as publication of ’Silent Spring’ – and calls from the European Parliament, the Commission took early, decisive actions to tackle this problem. A strategy was adopted in 1999, recognising that the final goal should be the protection of human health and the environment. A call for more research in the Strategy resulted via the publication of calls for proposals in the Fifth Framework of Research (1998-2002), in multi-centre, pan-European projects. They addressed a wide range of issues related to endocrine disruption ranging from declining sperm counts in humans to long-term effects of exposure to low doses of chemicals in laboratory animals. In addition, methods for detection and testing have been developed. This concentrated effort has produced results useful for regulatory purposes. Taking into consideration projects funded by the ongoing Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2006), the total expenditure on Commission-sponsored endocrine disrupter projects now exceeds €120 million. The purpose of this chapter is to provide to an overview of Commission-sponsored research projects dealing with endocrine disrupters and underlying policy decisions, sponsored mostly by the Key Action ’Environment and Health’.
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Karjalainen, T. (2007). European Union-Funded Research on Endocrine Disrupters and Underlying Policy. In: Nicolopoulou-Stamati, P., Hens, L., Howard, C. (eds) Congenital Diseases and the Environment. Environmental Science and Technology Library, vol 23. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4831-9_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4831-9_17
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