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5. Summary of the Supplement II to the Interim Report
This section presents a summary of this document (except the
section on risk communication and the action plan) in order to
help risk communication.
Introducing the Supplement II to the Interim Report
The Advisory Committee on Health Effects of Endocrine
Disruptors, established in order to summarize the present status
of the endocrine disruptor issue and discuss measures to be
taken, has so far published
- Interim Report (November 1998)1, and
- Supplement to the Interim Report (December 2001).
The Supplement describes works performed and results obtained by
the five study groups (test schemes, sampling and analysis,
low-dose issue, literature survey on exposure and epidemiologic
studies, and risk communication) established to address the
seven major problems (the inverted U effect or low-dose issue,
selection of analytes by HTPS, screening by experiments on
mammals, detailed tests for detecting and verifying endocrine
disruption, establishment of sampling and analysis methods,
gathering and analyzing information on exposure and
epidemiology, and promotion of risk communication) identified in
studies after the Interim Report, and presents an action plan
for the future.
The Supplement II is updates the Supplement with results
obtained by the five groups mentioned above.
It should be commented here on the term "hormone", an important
keyword in risk communication concerning the endocrine disruptor
issue. Frequent use of terms such as "hormone-like action" or
"hormonal activity" in discussing the issue seems to have given
the word "hormone" a negative image. Hormones are, however,
essential substances for life: they are produced by an organism
in its own body for maintaining life, growth and reproduction.
Dr. Ryo O. Greep, the "father of endocrinology", said that
hormones are a heavenly gift to all the living organisms without
which there can be no next generation, no love among people;
they are thus at the very fundament of our society. There should
be no misunderstanding on this point.
1 Refer to the
appendix in this book. |
