On the 4th of July 2017, at the Standing Committee of Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (SC PAFF) Member States voted in favour of the European Commission’s proposal of scientific criteria to identify endocrine disruptors (EDs) in the field of Plant Protection Products (PPP), drafted by Health and Food Safety Directorate-General (DG Sante).
The voted criteria proposal has been criticised by the Endocrine Society, the European Society for Endocrinology, and the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology, who also sent a letter to European Ministers to alarm them that “the criteria, as currently constructed, will likely fail to identify EDs that are currently causing human harm, and will not secure a high level of health and environment protection as required per the Treaty on the European Union (EU)” and to urge them to take action. They also criticize the arbitrary exemptions for chemicals specifically designed to disrupt target insect endocrine systems.