Policy Implication and Community Interventions to Reduce EDCs Exposure

Abstract

AbstractEndocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) as emerging pollutants and multi-target agents have accumulated in the environment at concentration levels inducing significant effects on planet and obviously on all living species so that public concern about the impact of EDCs is constantly growing.Moreover, there are many contaminants in the environment which have never been examined. Even low-level exposure to these chemicals can have significant effects, and the same dose response can have different effects on individuals. Furthermore, the cumulative effects of these chemicals are yet to be studied, thus the effect on human beings is not fully understood. Anyway the health consequences of these chemicals have been particularly studied on reproductive system. Male reproductive health, especially, has represented ideal target for analysing the effects and mechanisms of damage to health of these chemical compounds. This field of health is, indeed, critical for the future of society, not only for interdisciplinary approach of several specialists and institutions involved but also for the educational mission of new generations especially in the vulnerable adolescent period; a mission, about lifestyle, diet, behaviour, personal and social awareness to reduce the exposure to EDCs and prevent non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In this chapter, we will discuss policy Implication and Community Interventions to reduce EDCs Exposure for minimisation health damages in the frame of more recent knowledge on these contaminants and proposing how hazard-based approach to guide and reach the regulations should be preferred to the risk-based one. This approach is particularly important to safeguard the male and female reproductive system, which is the most exposed one to environmental stress.