Sweden Acts: US stalls on endocrine disruptors

[charlie.cray@green2.greenpeace.org]

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Original-TO:      dioxin-l@essential.org
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BNA INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT DAILY May  1, 1996 Sweden
SWEDEN PHASING OUT ALL PVC PRODUCTION BECAUSE OF CONCERN WITH
HORMONE EFFECTS  WASHINGTON (BNA) 
 
   The concern about hormone effects from exposure to additives

in the common plastic polyvinyl chloride has triggered the
Swedish government to institute a voluntary industry policy to
ban all production of PVC, Anna Lindh, Sweden's environment and
natural resources minister, told BNA April 29.
 
   The Swedish government has had in effect for some time a
policy that polyvinyl chloride production should be reduced and
that persistent chemical additives in PVC--especially
chlorine --should be eliminated, Lindh explained.
 
   More recently, however, because recent research has linked the
possibility of exposure to persistent chemicals with
adverse endocrine effects, the Swedish Parliament decided to
informally ask industry to stop production of PVC, Lindh
explained.
 
   In Sweden, PVC in packaging is almost nonexistent because of
voluntary industry action. The plastic in Sweden is used in
building materials, home furnishings, and electrical wiring.  
 
   "We would like to have a better knowledge" of the effects some
persistent chemicals have on the hormone systems in
animals and humans, Lindh said, agreeing that the scientists
studying the effects of chemicals on the endocrine system are
unsure about the scope of the problem.
 
   "But industry has to take more responsibility about phasing
out what we have doubts about because you can't wait too
long," Lindh told BNA in an interview at the Swedish ambassador's
residence in Washington.
 
   Prompted for the most part by the concern for endocrine
disruptor chemicals, the Swedish government plans to establish in
the next year a chemical commission to look at the research and
policy initiatives of other countries, Lindh said. The
commission also will study more targeted groups of chemicals to
determine their links with endocrine effects, she explained. It
should take about 18 months for the committee to develop policy
proposals about the endocrine disrupting chemicals, Lindh
said.
 
   "This is a new area where we are suspicious, but not so
sure yet," she said.
 
White House Looking For Data Gaps
 
   This precautionary principle is a philosophy Greenpeace
wishes the United States would adopt.  Greenpeace's campaign is
to reduce the use of chlorine in certain products --
especially PVC, Rick Hind, a Greenpeace official in Washington,
told BNA recently.
 
   The issue of endocrine disruptors "is just the last straw in
our view of all the (adverse) health effects" alleged from
chemicals like  chlorine and dioxins, Hind said. Dioxins are a
byproduct of incineration, often linked to the presence of
chlorinated compounds in the feedstock. 
 
    "Any court in the world would convict it if it were a
criminal," Hind said, referring to dioxin. "How many years have
we studied" the health effects of persistent chemicals like 
chlorine and dioxin without taking action, Hind asked
rhetorically.
 
   U.S. government agencies, spearheaded by the White House, are
not comfortable with making policy decisions about the
production or use of persistent chemicals until more scientific
evidence linking them to endocrine disruption is in.
 
   A White House endocrine disruptor work group under the
National Science and Technology Council's Committee on
Environment and Natural resources is looking for gaps of data in
current research on the issue.
 
   The workgroup met in a closed session April 29 to discuss how
to include a balance of industry and public interest
groups, a working group member, who asked not to be named,
said. The group consists of about 25 representatives from a host
of government agencies, including EPA, Health and Human Services,
the National Science Foundation, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, the interior and energy departments, and the
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
 
    Also at the meeting, the group discussed how to organize an
inventory of all the current research on the endocrine disruptor
issue. The group also was given a draft executive summary for an
article to be published in Environmental Health Perspectives this
summer that is the basis for the national research agenda.
 
   Asked to comment on Sweden's action to phase out PVC
production because of endocrine disruptor concerns, the working
group member said that their goal is to look at the science, not
the policy.
 
   The group is looking at the science behind endocrine
disruption as a key to understanding the issue, the member
reiterated.  ...
 
   Lindh is visiting the United States to meet with various
government officials the week of April 29. She will not meet her
counterpart, however, because Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Carol Browner is traveling, according to Eva
Franchell, Lindh's press secretary.
   -- By Amy Porter and Cheryl Hogue

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