Endocrine disruptors: An overview of the latest deveopments at EU level in the context of plant protection products.

Alina Dinu, European Parliamentary Research Service, EPRS, April 2019.

Endocrine disruptors (EDs) are chemical substances present in many products of daily life, which interact with the hormonal system and can disrupt its proper functioning. There is a growing interest in understanding EDs and progress has been made on both the scientific and regulatory side, but the topic remains of high concern at decision-making and societal levels because of the challenges it still poses. This paper provides a desk-research based overview of the key moments of the (scientific and regulatory) debate on EDs, with a focus on the latest developments at European level, namely Commission Regulation (EU) 2018/605 and the 2018 Commission communication ‘Towards a comprehensive European Union framework on endocrine disruptors’, in the particular context of plant protection products (PPPs).