A new economic analysis found exposure to
endocrine-disrupting chemicals likely costs the
European Union €157 billion ($209 billion) a year in
actual health care expenses and lost earning
potential, according to a new series of studies
published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of
Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
The authors presented the findings at simultaneous
press events at ENDO 2015, the Endocrine Society’s
97th Annual Meeting & Expo, and in Brussels,
Belgium.
Global experts in this field concluded that
infertility and male reproductive dysfunctions,
birth defects, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular
disease, and neurobehavioral and learning disorders
were among the conditions than can be attributed in
part to exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals
(EDCs).
The €157 billion estimate is conservative, and
represents 1.23 percent of Europe’s gross domestic
product (GDP). These costs may actually be as high
as €270 billion ($359 billion), or 2% of GDP.
“The analysis demonstrates just how staggering the
cost of widespread endocrine-disrupting chemical
exposure is to society,” said Leonardo Trasande, MD,
MPP, Associate Professor of Pediatrics,
Environmental Medicine & Population Health at NYU
Langone Medical Center, who led a team of eighteen
researchers across eight countries in this landmark
initiative. “This research crystalizes more than
three decades of lab and population-based studies of
endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the EU.”
EDCs mimic, block or interfere with the body’s
hormones. EDCs include bisphenol A (BPA) found in
till receipts and food can linings, certain
phthalates found in plastic products and cosmetics,
flame retardants and pesticides such as chlorpyrifos.
Nearly 100 percent of people have detectable amounts
of EDCs in their bodies, according to the
introductory guide to EDCs published by the
Endocrine Society and IPEN.
To assess the economic burden of EDC exposure, a
group of scientists convened a panel of global EDC
experts to adapt existing environmental health cost
models, relying on the Institute of Medicine’s 1981
approach of assessing the contribution of
environment factors in causing illness, to calculate
the estimated cost burden of EDCs.
Based on the body of established literature, the
researchers evaluated the likelihood that EDCs
contributed to various medical conditions and
dysfunctions but limited the analysis to the
disorders with the strongest scientific evidence.
The analysis included direct costs of hospital
stays, physician services, nursing home care and
other medical costs. The researchers also calculated
estimates of indirect costs such as lost worker
productivity, early death and disability.
“Although this analysis was limited to the European
Union, the disease and cost burden of exposure is
likely to be on the same order of magnitude in the
United States and elsewhere in the world,” Trasande
said.
In the EU, researchers found the biggest cost driver
was loss of IQ and intellectual disabilities caused
by prenatal exposure to pesticides containing
organophosphates.
The study estimated the harm done to unborn children
costs society between €46.8 billion and €195 billion
a year. About 13 million lost IQ points and 59,300
additional cases of intellectual disability per year
can be attributed to organophosphate exposure.
Adult obesity linked to phthalate exposure generated
the second-highest total, with estimated costs of
€15.6 billion a year.
“Our findings show that limiting exposure to the
most common and hazardous endocrine-disrupting
chemicals is likely to yield significant economic
benefits,” said one of the study’s authors, Philippe
Grandjean, MD, PhD, Professor of Environmental
Medicine at the University of Southern Denmark and
Adjunct Professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of
Public Health. “This approach has the potential to
inform decision-making in the environmental health
arena. We are hoping to bring the latest endocrine
science to the attention of policymakers as they
weigh how to regulate these toxic chemicals.”
Other authors of the studies include: R. Thomas
Zoeller of the University of Massachusetts in
Amherst, MA; Ulla Hass of the National Food
Institute at the Technical University of Denmark in
Søborg, Denmark; Andreas Kortenkamp of Brunel
University in Uxbridge, Middlesex, United Kingdom;
John Peterson Myers of Environmental Health Services
in Charlottesville, VA; Joseph DiGangi of IPEN in
Gothenburg, Sweden; Martine Bellanger of EHESP
School of Public Health in Paris, France; Russ
Hauser of T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health
in Boston, MA; Juliette Legler of VU University in
Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Niels Skakkebaek, Anna
Maria Andersson and Anders Juul of Rigshospitalet,
EDMaRC and University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen,
Denmark; Jerrold J. Heindel of National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle
Park, NC; Tony Fletcher of the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London, UK; Eva
Govarts of the Flemish Institute for Technological
Research (VITO) in Mol, Belgium; Miquel Porta of the
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Hospital del Mar
Institute of Medical Research and CIBERESP in
Barcelona, Spain; Bruce Blumberg of the University
of California, Irvine; Jorma Toppari of the
University of Turku in Turku, Finland; and Barbara
Demeneix of the National Center for Scientific
Research (CRNS) at Muséum National d'Histoire
Naturelle de Paris in Paris, France.
The studies are:
“Estimating Burden and Disease Costs of Exposure to
Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in the European
Union”
“Male Reproductive Disorders, Diseases and Costs of
Exposure to Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in the
European Union”
“Obesity, Diabetes and Associated Costs of Exposure
to Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in the European
Union”
“Neurobehavioral Deficits, Diseases and Associated
Costs of Exposure to Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals
in the European Union”
The studies were
published online, ahead of print.
For more information
Endocrine Society
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