Human health and endocrine disruption: A simple multi-criteria framework for the qualitative assessment of endpoint-specific risks in a context of scientific uncertainty

D ow nloaded from Endocrine disruption remains one of the most controversial contemporary environmental issues. While the desired level of protection is ultimately a societal choice, endocrine toxicity could result in a wide spectrum of adverse health effects. Although the application of the causal framework of weight-of-evidence approaches to complex toxicological issues has incited much interest, no international criteria or guidance have yet been developed. In this context, the evidence on endpoint-specific risks to human health contained in the IPCS Global assessment of the State-of-Science on Endocrine Disruptors report was updated and assessed qualitatively using three simple criteria relevant to the practical application of the Precautionary Principle; incidence trends, association and consequence. The current degree of knowledge was then ranked according to ignorance, uncertainty and risk. The main sources of scientific uncertainty in relation to incidence trends were associated with the evolution of diagnostic criteria or diagnostic tests, while geneti