A new report, from the Nordic Council of Ministers, focuses on the costs of endocrine disruptor chemicals on health and the ability to work but warns that they “only represent a fraction of the endocrine-related diseases” and does not consider damage to wildlife.
Abstract
Exposure to endocrine disruptors (EDs) is suspected to lead to a number of negative effects on human health and for wildlife. In this report the costs for effects on male reproductive health (testicular cancer, hypospadias, cryptorchidism and infertility) are estimated. The model used is built on incidence of disease in the five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) and cost per case based on cost per patient data from Sweden. Extrapolation to EU28 is made based on population size. Assuming that EDs constitute 2, 20 or 40% the total costs for the selected health effects are 3.6, 36.1 or 72.3 million Euros/year of exposure in the Nordic countries, this corresponds to 59, 592 and 1,184 million Euros/year at EU-level. As these costs only represent a fraction of the endocrine related diseases there are good reasons to continue the work to minimize exposure to EDs.
Sources and more information
- The Cost of Inaction : A Socioeconomic analysis of costs linked to effects of endocrine disrupting substances on male reproductive health, urn:nbn:se:norden:org:diva-3517, 2014-11-24.
Full text PDF. - Endocrine disruptors cost the EU billions every year,
norden news, Nov 18, 2014. - Toiletry chemicals linked to testicular cancer and male infertility cost EU millions, report says, the guardian, 2 December 2014.