FREIA research project reveals recommendations for strategies to protect women’s health against endocrine disrupting chemicals

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) pose significant threats to women’s reproductive health. Following five years of research, the EU-funded research project FREIA has published recommendations for health promotion strategies and EU-wide policy action to reduce exposure.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are synthetic chemicals that interfere with the natural hormones in our bodies. Examples of EDCs include numerous pesticides, phthalates and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). It is beyond a doubt that EDCs impact health: exposure has been linked with various types of cancer, infertility and reproductive health problems, thyroid problems, early puberty, diabetes, and obesity.

Today, we still have gaps in our understanding into how endocrine disrupting chemicals affect women’s reproductive health, despite being present everywhere in our environment. This makes it difficult to identify, regulate and take protective measures against such chemicals. The recommendations for EU institutions, national governments, and healthcare professionals put forward by the FREIA research project cover methods to strengthen health promotion strategies as well as EU-wide legislation on EDCs, which include the following measures:

1. Improve environmental health literacy and awareness of EDCs, by launching educational awareness-raising campaigns, integrating EDCs into secondary school curricula, and through improved product labelling and the development of mobile apps that allow consumers to easily identify the chemicals used in the products they buy.
2. Increase environmental health training for health professionals, who are generally considered to be trusted sources for reliable information, according to a survey that was part of the research conducted by FREIA.
3. Expand knowledge on the effectiveness of exposure prevention interventions and promotion strategies, by establishing human biomonitoring programmes to monitor EDC exposure levels among European populations, and by evaluating the effectiveness of interventions aiming to reduce exposure.
4. Support the development and implementation of EU-wide legislation to reduce the use of and exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals, for example by ensuring the timely implementation of the EU Chemicals Strategy and by updating EU legislation (like the EU’s flagship chemicals legislation REACH) to ensure EDCs can be identified and regulated.

The report furthermore sets out effective interventions to reduce EDC exposure among individuals and clinical settings and provides an overview of perceptions about endocrine disruptors and reproductive health. It also gives examples of strategies and tips to reduce EDC exposure from different countries.

The report also features results from a survey among adults of reproductive age in the Netherlands, exploring citizens’ attitudes towards endocrine disruptors, actions to reduce exposures, and preferred information sources.

“With one in six couples struggling to conceive or carrying a pregnancy to term, taking action to safeguard female reproductive health against harmful endocrine disrupting chemicals could be a game-changer. Our research demonstrates interventions to reduce exposure are effective and reveals a huge potential to improve women’s health worldwide,” says Majorie van Duursen, Professor of Environmental Health and Toxicology at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam and FREIA project coordinator.

Génon K. Jensen, Executive Director at the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), calls for action in the next EU legislature to restrict EDCs: “The omnipresence of endocrine disrupting chemicals in our daily lives continues to wreak havoc on people’s health. We owe it to current and future generations to ensure exposure is brought to a halt, by making sure EDCs such as PFAS and harmful pesticides are urgently phased out in the EU.”

FREIA – named after the Nordic fertility goddess – is an EU-funded research project dedicated to advancing test methods to identify endocrine disrupting chemicals that are toxic to women’s health. The project, of which HEAL is a partner, is a collaboration between 11 institutes from seven European countries and the USA.

Click here to download the full report.

For more information about the FREIA research project, click here.   

Click here to download factsheets and infographics from the FREIA project (available in different languages), which provide clear and concise information on endocrine disrupting chemicals and women’s health.

Visit the FREIA webinar series, bringing together leading scientists to talk about their findings after five years of research into the effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals on female reproductive health.