Matthieu Schuler has been Director of Risk Assessment at ANSES since 1is February 2018. A mining engineer by training, he was previously Director of Strategy at the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN).
What is an endocrine disruptor?
Hormones and their regulation are part of the biological mechanisms essential to living beings. Certain substances, which may be natural or man-made, may interfere with these mechanisms. When these interferences disrupt hormonal functioning and cause adverse effects on human or animal health, we speak of endocrine disruptors.
What are the issues ?
We are working to identify the substances that will cause these effects on humans or animals and to understand their mechanism of action. This identification is complex because the mechanisms of action of endocrine disruptors can, like those of hormones, be expressed only at certain stages of development and not be correlated with the exposure dose. ANSES studies and assesses the scientific literature available on these substances and, as part of the PNREST, has been funding specific research projects since 2018 with an annual budget of €2 million. In this way, the Agency contributes to advancing knowledge in the identification, characterization and research of alternatives to endocrine disruptors. ANSES has been involved for more than ten years in the characterization and risk assessment of endocrine disruptors. We were pioneers in proposing a revision of the methodology then in force by integrating into the assessment the consideration of “windows of exposure”, i.e. periods during which individuals were more sensitive to endocrine disruption. The evaluation has therefore become more complex, but also more precise.
What work is ANSES carrying out?
In addition to the assessment work that we carry out on specific substances, the first National Strategy on endocrine disruptors, supported by the ministries responsible for ecology and health, led us to determine a method for characterizing endocrine disruptors with a view to applying it to certain substances. We will continue this work in the second National Strategy which was launched at Agency headquarters last September. We are indeed strongly involved since 18 of the 50 actions of the strategy mobilize us. Our group of dedicated experts, the working group on endocrine disruptors, has already worked in 2019 on identifying the various lists of substances of interest that have been drawn up and on the complex development of a method to classify more finely and following an assessment, the substances studied according to whether their behavior as an endocrine disruptor is proven, presumed or just suspected.
At European level, ANSES is involved in several regulatory schemes aimed at identifying substances that are endocrine disruptors with a view to limiting their health impact. We thus intervene within the framework of the REACh regulations by filing what are called use restriction files, and under the regulations specific to biocides and phytopharmaceuticals. This latest regulation makes it possible to identify and exclude endocrine disruptors identified as part of the approval process for plant protection substances, which involves national health agencies alongside the European reference health authority, EFSA.
