The scientific panel of Europe’s food safety regulator called for a new, harder look at chemical safety standards – and in doing so, took a swipe at U.S. efforts to keep the status quo.
The new study, published last month in the European Food Safety Authority Journal, calls on regulators worldwide to consider “non-monotonic dose responses,” or NMDRs – the non-intuitive notion that the dose does not always make the poison.
The concept is firmly established in medicine and by endocrinologists who study the body’s reaction to infintesimally tiny amounts of hormone-like substances, known as endocrine disruptors.
But regulators worldwide have been reluctant to incorporate the thinking into food and product safety standards.
That, say scientists with the European Food Safety Authority, needs to change:
“Considering the potential impact of NMDRs in regulatory risk assessment, the Scientific Committee recommends a concerted international effort on developing internationally agreed guidance and harmonised frameworks for identifying and addressing NMDRs in the risk assessment process.”
Read the full study here.
Banner photo credit: Guillaume Périgois/Unsplash
Banner photo credit: Guillaume Périgois/Unsplash