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WECF's Alexandra Caterbow gives intervention during SAICM chemicals discussion

International Chemicals talks highlight health sector involvement, EDCs and milestones to achieving 2020 goal

18.12.2014 |WECF

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Alexandra Caterbow gives intervention

WECF was participating in the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management’s (SAICM’s) meeting this week in Geneva, Switzerland as part of the IPEN network to share successes from the health sector and advocate for milestones to minimise health effects from chemical pollution.

The meeting, known as the Second Open Ended Working Group (OEWG2), is currently preparing the agenda and priorities for the next International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM), planned for 2015.

WECF’s Alexandra Caterbow gave on December 16 an intervention on behalf of IPEN during the SAICM chemicals discussion in Geneva. 

The full intervention can be downloaded as a PDF here.

"...  SAICM implementation work on EDCs should incorporate the expertise of endocrinologists and consider the implications of the following characteristics of EDCs:

• A single hormone will have changing effects at different times and places in the body during development and with different sensitivity. Therefore sensitive endpoints with predictive ability must be prioritized to identify endocrine disruptors;
• Hormones act at very low concentrations so the effects of very small amounts of endocrine disruptors need to be taken into account systematically.
• Chemical interference with hormone actions during early development can have long-lasting, even permanent, consequences that might manifest years later and endocrine disruptors can set up the body for mis-adaptation;

Her intervention ended with the words:

"133 million children are born every year, it is in your hands to protect them from EDC related diseases like infertility, learning disabilities, breast-, testicular- and prostate cancer. As I said, there is no time to waste."

To read all interventions by NGOs and IPEN network members, like the interventions by HEAL Director Genon Jensen and the one form Laurel Berzanskis from Health Care without Harm: see http://ipen.org/conferences/oewg2

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