An exploratory analysis of the current chemical regulations and guidelines from the perspective of endocrine disrupting chemicals using public resources

Abstract

The regulatory assessment of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) is complex due to the lack of a standardized definition of EDCs and validated testing criteria. In spite of these challenges, there is growing scientific interest in EDCs which has resulted in the rapid expansion of published literature on endocrine disruption upon chemical exposure. Here, we explore how academic research leading to curated knowledgebases can inform current chemical regulations on EDCs. To this end, we present an updated knowledgebase, DEDuCT 2.0, containing 792 potential EDCs with supporting evidence from 2218 research articles. Thereafter, we study the distribution of potential EDCs across several chemical lists that reflect guidelines for use or regulations. Further, to understand the scale of possible exposure to the potential EDCs present in chemical lists, we compare them with high production volume chemicals. Notably, we find many potential EDCs are in use across various product categories such as ‘Food additives and Food contact materials’ and ‘Cosmetics and household products’. Several of these EDCs are also produced or manufactured in high volume across the world. Lastly, we illustrate using an example how diverse information in curated knowledgebases such as DEDuCT 2.0 can be helpful in the risk assessment of EDCs. In sum, we highlight the need to bridge the gap between academic and regulatory aspects of chemical safety, as a step towards the better management of environment and health hazards such as EDCs.

ExHuMId: A curated resource and analysis of Exposome of Human Milk across India

“…We decided to perform a detailed analysis of the chemicals in ExHuM that are of potential concern across the world, with three categories of chemical substances in use or of concern, as described below. The lists of chemical substances employed for this analysis have been described in detail in our recent work (Karthikeyan et al, 2020) (Supplementary Tables S3).…”

“…Specifically, we have considered four substance lists in this category for analysis of human milk contaminants. Firstly, to understand the presence of endocrine disruptors, we used the list of 792 potential endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) from DEDuCT (Karthikeyan et al, 2020(Karthikeyan et al, , 2019 for this analysis. Secondly, we considered the list of carcinogens from IARC monographs (Samet et al, 2020).…”

“…Endocrine disruptors are a major concern due to their potential to interfere with various hormone-mediated processes in the body. Using the list of EDCs in DEDuCT 2.0 (Karthikeyan et al, 2019(Karthikeyan et al, , 2020, we have analyzed the set of contaminants in ExHuMId and Common ExHuM (Methods). We found that 43 and 19 potential EDCs are present in ExHuMId and Common ExHuM, respectively (Supplementary Table S3).…”

“…We also utilize the information compiled in our resource, and in two other resources (Neveu et al, 2017;Lehmann et al, 2018) to understand the human milk exposome from three perspectives. Firstly, we understand the nature of human milk contaminants through a comparative analysis with several chemical regulatory and guideline lists (Karthikeyan et al, 2020). This has allowed us to identify potential carcinogens, endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), neurotoxins and hazardous chemicals among human milk contaminants.…”