White House endocrine disrupter panel calls for more wildlife research This month a federal advisory panel established to review current projects on endocrine-disrupting chemicals will call for an increased focus on whether the chemicals are causing a problem for wildlife, said Fran Sharpies, senior policy analyst with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The draft document, which outlines the government's priority research needs, shifts from the current focus on human health endpoints to an equitable inclusion of ecological effects and endpoints. In November 1996, 14 federal agencies operating under the White House's Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR) concluded that the vast majority of government-sponsored research on endocrine disrupters is basic research on human health endpoints. The committee found that agencies are doing a "fair amount" of research on endocrine disruption, "but that research is directed in rather specific ways. It is not comprehensive and there are manv many areas that are underdeveloped or not represented at all" said Sharoles who coordinates the committee's work The inventory found that the 396 projects underway are implemented by a handful of government agencies, mainly the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Science Foundation, and EPA, Sharpies said. The vast majority, 69%, are aimed at human health endpoints. Only 18% are focused on ecological effects and 13% on exposure. "The scarcity of ecological and exposure research is readily apparent across the board" said Sharpies. The committee has since developed a draft list of 25 areas for government and extramural research, to look into human health effects, ecological effects, and exposure assessment. "Given current research portfolio, this is a departure because the focus of current research is overwhelmingly on human beings. We don't have
much information to tell us if this is a problem in wildlife or not." The lack of information is apparent even as EPA develops a screening and testing scheme for endocrine disrupters, that must be in place by August 1999. Despite the uncertainty, it is unclear whether government funds will be available to perform these research projects right away. Global climate change is the priority in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy while endocrine disrupters fall somewhere in the middle of the pack of urgent projects one researcher commented Much of the proposed research will not be funded for two or three years the researcher predicted
Several agencies participating with the committee have pooled research money from their current budgets and are developing a Request for Proposals (RFP) that may
total as much as $6.5 million, for extramural research that can be carried out now, Sharpies said. The RFR which is still being drafted, is expected to seek projects that advance the government's understanding of three areas. The first project would establish relationships between exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals and adverse outcomes for human diseases and impaired reproduction and development in vulnerable human populations, with a focus on exposure during critical fetal neonatal and childhood stages. The second would characterize interspecies variability among sensitive wildife with an increased emohasis on am.phibians reptiles and invertebrates that mav be sensitive to enHnrrine disrnnfing chemicals The third nroject would h e l p charactpnVp adverse outcomes such as tumors and rpdurpd fpnin ditv to wildlife and tn vulnprahlp human nnnnlatinn
