The current scientific evidence for reducing endocrine-disrupting exposures from dietary intake and personal care products was clear. While individuals can reduce their exposures to hormone-disrupting chemicals, it requites the motivation and time to identiy suitable products, the ability to find and purchase them, and ongoing compliance to use these alternative products. It is still possible that all this will not reduce their exposures if products are contaminated further up the processing chain.
Like the provision of clean water, the availability of only ‘safe’ products into the market means individuals don’t need to rely on motivation to change ingrained habits or ability to find out about and identify products which don’t aren’t harmful.
We have created a 1-page policy briefing note outlining the findings from our ATHLETE research including what you, as a decision-maker, can do. We know that removing or replacing products with endocrine-disrupting chemicals can reduce human exposures. Actions policymakers can take include implementing policies which:
- Make information about the chemicals used in products and packaging easily accessible to consumers
- Do not require individual knowledge or behaviour change, such as testing chemicals for potential human risk before they are introduced into manufacturing processes or consumer products
Some recommendations for individual action can be scaled up to a workplace, such as ensuring the toiletries and cleaning products used in buildings are free from endocrine-disrupting chemicals, switching to glass and stainless steel food and drink containers, or restricting foods and drinks sold in or served on plastic.
Want to know more? See how the Born in Bradford study has contributed to generating the evidence base around these exposures by reading our evidence briefing report.
What kind of challenges might you, as a decision-maker, come across when implementing these effective interventions? What could help overcome them?
We spoke to decision-makers in local government departments working to reduce chemical exposures in child-centered organizations and catering sites. These have focused awareness-raising, public procurement of safer cleaning products and toiletries, and switching from plastic containers to stainless steel or glass for heating of foods and catering and in crèches, schools, and workplaces.
Large-scale public procurement of cleaning products and supplies helps distribute safer alternatives to a wider range of sites. This reduces the burden on each site to need to understand the risks of chemicals in products, identify safe alternatives, and procure them.
The swap to stainless steel or glass containers may require new kitchen facilities to support the changes in organisational and ergonomic barriers due to e.g. the weight of glass compared to plastic and current processes designed for packaging food in plastic. Current initiatives have also found that the return of glass and stainless steel containers have not been consistent.
These local government initiatives show that it is possible to implement these interventions. A strong vision and political will to put these interventions into place, along with the necessary financial investment, were identified as enablers. But, local ambitions require external resources and support and are more likely to be successful with buy-in from higher levels of government.
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Find out more – resources:
What are endocrine-disrupting compounds? Find out more from:
- The Chem Trust
- Our ATHLETE partners, the Health and Environment Alliance
- The World Health Organization
- The Endocrine Society
- Find out about the UK’s policy (UK REACH) on endocrine-disrupting compounds
- Find out abou tthe EU’s policy (REACH) endocrine-disrupting compounds
- Learn about our co-production method and how to co-produce with your community to bring about shared understanding and lasting change. Find more resources here!
