Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are of high regulatory interest. Our ambition in support of the EU’s Zero Pollution goals ↗ is to contribute to the first European baseline for EDCs in the environment, including possibly new, not yet recognised endocrine disruptors. A multiple compartment monitoring campaign will be developed in PARC under Task 4.2 ‘Environmental and multisource monitoring’, led by INERIS ↗ and Aarhus University ↗. In the campaign, we will integrate target analysis, non-target and suspect screening as well as a large battery of multi-receptor in vitro and in vivo bioassays will be used.

As a first step, we have compiled a comprehensive list of about 7,300 compounds from previous assessments and modelling approaches applying the EDC prediction models of the (QSAR) VEGA platform to the NORMAN SusDat database. Through a collaborative effort among experts in PARC, the compounds were then characterised in terms of physical-chemical properties and relevant matrices for monitoring, use sectors, modes of action for the bioassays, chemical classes and available information vs knowledge gaps about their occurrence in the environment.

This initial work, recently presented at the 18th International Conference On Chemistry And The Environment ↗ (ICCE 2023) in Venice, Italy, will be crucial for the next steps of designing an EDC state-of-the-art monitoring plan in PARC.