More than a decade after Congress told the Environmental Protection Agency to start the test chemicals that can disrupt the balance of hormones in people, the agency finally gets time to do it. Yesterday, the EPA published a list of 67 first pesticides that will be tested this summer as part of its screening program of so-called endocrine disruptors.
The testing mandate has been folded into the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, at a time of escalating public concerns about chemicals in the environment hormonelike. These endocrine disruptors can cause reproductive problems in wildlife, and scientists suspect that they contribute to cancer and infertility in men. Environmental groups have been frustrated by the delay in the test program. EPA says it has taken so long in part because scientists had to develop tests for endocrine disruption.
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