Endocrine assays go fast track

Growing concerns about environmental contaminants associated with adverse developmental, reproductive, neurological, and immune effects led Congress more than 20 years ago to direct the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop a program to screen chemicals for their potential to mimic estrogen in humans. EPA decided to go beyond the mandate and evaluate the impacts of chemicals on androgen and thyroid hormone systems and to look at effects in wildlife as well as humans. EPA’s resulting Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP) got off to a slow start and sputtered for nearly two decades at a cost of about $10 million annually. To date, only a few dozen pesticides have gone through the battery of five in vitro and six in vivo assays to screen for potential endocrine activity under the program. Eighteen of those pesticides were flagged for further testing. By 2015, it was obvious to EPA officials that the agency’s