Preface

This special issue summarizes key aspects of the state of knowledge regarding endocrine disruptors and their effect and suggests how this scientific information can affect regulatory and other legal efforts being considered both in the European Union (EU) and in the United States. Although much of the discussions included in this special issue is about bisphenol A (BPA), several lines of scientific enquiry apply to other endocrine disruptors. Its editors, Fabbri and Ricci, began this effort to determine whether dose–response relationships, both in the literature and through individual studies, could be identified so that policy and regulatory law would benefit from that form of causality formally to justify environmental and public health standard for exposure, possibly including cessation of exposure through bans. The scientific findings reported by key international researchers, as presented in this issue, suggest that this is not yet possible. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that endocrine disruptors create risks in ways that are uncommon in toxicology, a fact that is supported by epidemiologic results of different types. The policy dilemma that seemingly cannot be resolved—other than by policy fiat—is whether it is societally more appropriate to wait for dose–response relationships to be theoretically and experimentally confirmed or to reduce exposure through laws and regulations based on weak and contradictory evidence. Ricci addresses this problem in his article and suggests (that the formal answer can be found in probabilistic decision theoretic methods in which value of information and value of flexibility play a prominent role). Of course, political trade-offs go beyond those solutions, and the role of our work is to inform stakeholders and not supplant their role. The authors who have prepared articles for this special issue have focused on environmental health exposures and effects on a number of entities at risk, most notably animals and human studies. Etc. Etc.