Endocrine Disrupters – Hazard Testing and Assessment Methods

PETER MATTHIESSEN, PhD, is an aquatic ecotoxicologist who works as an independent consultant. Specializing in the study of endocrine disrupters, he has conducted extensive research into how sewage effluents cause feminization in wild male fish as well as how tributyltin-based antifoulants cause masculinization in wild female mollusks. Professor Matthiessen is a member of the UK Advisory Committee on Pesticides and Co-chair of the OECD Validation Management Group for Ecotoxicity Tests. He has contributed to the development of standardized ecotoxicity assays with sensitivity for endocrine disrupters as well as written guidance for the interpretation of the resulting data.

Preface Chapter 1. Introduction Peter Matthiessen 1.1 Background 1.2 Regulatory concerns 1.3 Invertebrates 1.4 Vertebrates 1.5 Testing schemes for EDCs 1.6 References Chapter 2. Endocrine disruption in wildlife: background, effects and implications Dick Vethaak and Juliette Legler 2.1 Background to endocrine disruption 2.2 Effects of EDCs on wildlife 2.3 The weight of evidence and ecological significance of ED effects 2.4 Implications for effect assessment and toxicity testing 2.5 Need for more field studies and an integrated approach 2.6 Concluding points 2.7 References Chapter 3. The regulatory need for tests to detect EDCs and assess their hazards to wildlife Hans-Christian Stolzenberg, Tobias Frische, Anne Gourmelon, Taisen Iguchi, Flemming Ingerslev, Mike Roberts, and Gary Timm 3.1 Emerging concerns and policy responses, focusing on EDCs as a large pseudo-uniform group of substances 3.2 General approaches in substance-related regulatory frameworks (EU) 3.3 How to make EDC definitions operational for substance-related regulatory work 3.4 Future perspectives 3.5 Conclusions 3.6 References Chapter 4. Techniques for measuring endocrine disruption in insects Lennart Weltje 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Methods 4.3 Discussion 4.4 Conclusions 4.5 Acknowledgements 4.6 References Chapter 5. Crustaceans Magnus Breitholtz 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Background to crustacean endocrinology 5.3 State of the art - what do we know about endocrine disruption in crustaceans? 5.4 Available subchronic/chronic standard test protocols 5.5 Complementary tools for identification of endocrine disruption 5.6 Summary and conclusions 5.7 References 6. Endocrine disruption in mollusks (processes and testing Patricia D. McClellan-Green 6.1 Background and introduction 6.2 What constitutes the endocrine system in mollusks? 6.3 Endpoints and biomarkers of endocrine disruption 6.4 Current test methods using mollusks 6.5 Proposed test methods 6.6 Conclusions 6.7 References 7. Using fish to detect endocrine disrupters and assess their potential environmental hazards Peter Matthiessen 7.1 Introduction 7.2 International efforts to standardise fish-based methods for screening and testing endocrine disrupting chemicals 7.3 Fish-based screens developed by OECD for endocrine disrupting chemicals 7.4 Progress with developing fish partial life-cycle tests for endocrine disrupters 7.5 Prospects for the standardisation of fish full life-cycle and multi-generation tests 7.6 Strengths and weaknesses of a hazard evaluation strategy based partly on available and proposed fish screens and tests 7.7 Conclusions 7.8 References 8. Screening and testing for endocrine disrupting chemicals in amphibian models Daniel B. Pickford 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Potential uses of amphibians in endocrine disrupter screening and testing programmes 8.3 Embryonic development 8.4 Hatching 8.5 Larval development 8.6 Higher tier tests with amphibians 8.7 Other and emerging test methods 8.8 Summary and conclusions 8.9 References 9. Endocrine disruption and reptiles: using the unique attributes of temperature-dependent sex determination to assess impacts Satomi Kohno and Louis J. Guillette Jr. 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Approaches to examine effects of EDCs 9.3 Induction of sex reversal in ovo 9.4 Analysis of sex-reversed animals 9.5 Conclusions 9.6 References 10. Birds Paul D. Jones, Markus Hecker, Steve Wiseman and John P. Giesy 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Differences between birds and mammals and among bird species 10.3 In vitro techniques 10.4 Studies with embryos 10.5 In vivo techniques 10.6 Examples of EDC effects from field studies 10.7 Proposed 2-generation test 10.8 Conclusions 10.9 References 11. Mammalian methods for detecting and assessing endocrine-active compounds M. Sue Marty 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Mammalian Tier 1 screening assays 11.3 Tier 2 tests 11.4 Human and wildlife relevance of estrogen, androgen and thyroid screening assays 11.5 Potential future assays for endocrine screening 11.6 References 12. Application of the OECD Conceptual Framework for assessing the human health and ecological effects of endocrine disrupters Thomas H. Hutchinson, Jenny Odum and Anne Gourmelon 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Overview of the OECD revised Conceptual Framework 12.3 Application of the 'Klimisch Criteria' to the EE2 and VIN case studies 12.4 Case study: data examples for 17alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2) 12.5 Case study: data examples for vinclozolin (VIN) 12.6 Conclusions 12.7 Disclaimer 12.8 References 13. The prospects for routine testing of chemicals for endocrine disrupting properties and potential ecological impacts Peter Matthiessen 13.1 Introduction 13.2 Are there gaps in the testing suite for EDCs? 13.3 'New' modes of endocrine disrupting action 13.4 How should tests for EDCs be deployed in an integrated fashion? 13.5 Use of weight-of-evidence when assessing possible EDCs 13.6 Conclusions 13.7 References Index