EPA Posts Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program Management Plan

According to the USEPA:

EPA has posted the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP) Comprehensive Management Plan on its website. The purpose of the EPA's EDSP is to protect people, wildlife and our environment from chemicals that may affect endocrine systems by screening pesticides, chemicals and environmental contaminants for their potential effects on estrogen, androgen and thyroid hormone systems.  EPA's EDSP Comprehensive Management Plan provides strategic guidance for agency personnel and outlines the critical activities that are planned for this program over the next five years. The plan is intended as an internal planning document, but is being made available to the public in order to be as transparent as possible.

For more information, the plan is available at http://www.epa.gov/endo

ECHA Adds Thirteen Substances to Candidate List

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has added thirteen new substances of very high concern (SVHCs) to the REACH candidate list.  This list serves as a staging area for substances to be added to Annex XIV of REACH, which puts them on a track to be banned pending authorization for limited uses for limited time periods.

According to ECHA:

"Four have been identified as SVHCs under the precondition that they contain certain carcinogenic constituents above the concentration limit for classifying these substances as carcinogenic. Five of the new SVHCs have been included in the Candidate List following a scrutiny of the comments received during the public consultation and the unanimous agreement of the Member State Committee (MSC). The further eight substances, which did not receive comments challenging the identification as SVHCs during public consultation, were directly added to the Candidate List."

More information and the full candidate list of substances can be found on the ECHA site.