Endocrine disruptors: recommendations for grouping and read-across approaches

Minimizing exposure to endocrine disruptors (EDs) is high on the political agenda in the EU and in the Nordic region.One tool to speed up these efforts is by regulating groups of substances.In a recent project, we explored whether EDs require special attention when conducting grouping and read-across through analyses of case examples of substance groupings involving EDs.Some cases aimed at data-gap filling through read-across, while others focussed solely on the grouping approach.For each example, we evaluated advantages, challenges, uncertainties and regulatory perspectives, and synthesized key learnings.Based on these insights, we developed recommendations for grouping and read-across, which were incorporated into a proposed simplified workflow to support the grouping of substances, including EDs.The main findings were that EDs can be grouped similarly to other chemicals, but their complex hazard profiles require special consideration.Structural features decisive of distinct ED activities should be