Endocrine Disruptors

15 - 16 September 2025 - Berlin und online
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Intro
Agenda
Speakers
Partners
Venue
Presentations

Monday, 15th September 2025

8.30 Registration and Coffee

8.55
Opening Remarks
Dr Bjoern Nehls, Director, Chem-Academy, and
Dr Volker J. Soballa, Vice President, Head of Product Stewardship, Corporate
ESHQ, Evonik Industries AG

9.00
The European and the Global Framework: Chemicals Regulation

  • Current and upcoming challenges for Product Stewardship
  • „The Clean Industrial Deal“
  • The Chemical Industry Package
  • REACH Revision

Dr Volker J. Soballa, Vice President, Head of Product Stewardship, Corporate
ESHQ, Evonik Industries AG, Germany

9.40
The EU’s Legal Framework and Current Initiatives from a Lawyer’s Point of View

  • Endocrine Disruptors regulatory requirements
  • REACH
  • CLP
  • BPR and PPPR
  • Planning certainty in times of changes and fragmentation

Darren Abrahams, Partner, Avocat, Barrister, Steptoe LLP, Belgium

10.20 Coffee break

10.50
Endocrine Disruptors – ECHA’s Point of View and the State of Regulation

  • Current work on ED within the regulatory framework
  • Update on CLP criteria for Endocrine Disruption
  • Recommended action for companies
  • Integrating population-level effects into the regulatory assessment of ED substances

Francesca Pellizzato, Senior Scientific Officer, Substance Evaluation Team,
Hazard Assessment and Scientific Coordination, Unit C3, European Chemicals
Agency (ECHA)

11.30
Endocrine Disruptors: EU Chemicals Policy and Domestic Perspective

  • The state of ED regulation from a member state’s point of view
  • Update on the authorization, identification and evaluation of EDs
  • Adaptation of REACH standard information requirements for EDs
  • Current status of the CLH coverage for EDs
  • First learnings from the application of the CLP Guidance

Dr Christian Unkelbach, Federal Office for Chemicals (BfC), Federal Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), Germany

12.10 Lunch break

13.40
Increasing the Robustness and Transparency of Regulatory Decisions in the
Face of Uncertainties

  • What do we mean by uncertainty – what types of uncertainty are there?
  • What are some of the challenges for science from society and politics?
  • How can regulators come to sustainable science-based decisions?
  • How to move forward despite uncertainties, with potentially unpopular decisions

Annegaaike Leopold, Managing Director, Calidris environment bv, The
Netherlands

14.20
ED New Hazard Classes – Practical Experiences with Regard to CLP and
Across Regulations

  • The new CLP hazard classes for ED HH and ED ENV
  • How to deal with requirements and timelines
  • Lack of data and consequences
  • Vulnerability assessments

Dr Michaela Moors-Frericks, Environmental & Human Toxicology, knoell
Germany GmbH

15.00 Coffee break

15.30
The US Approach to Regulation of Endocrine Disruptors

  • The US EPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP)
  • The conceptual framework on assessing EDs: risk vs hazard
  • Aims, progress, and adjustments of the EDSP
  • Research projects
  • Testing status and what the EPA expects
  • Outlook on New Approach Methodologies (NAMs)

Dr Scott Lynn, Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), USA

16.10
The Need for Science-Based Decision Making

  • Impact of ED regulation on chemicals manufacturers
  • Policy objectives in the near future
  • Risk Assessment Methods
  • Phasing out animal testing
  • The state of NAMs (New Approach Methodologies)
  • Where does science benefit from Artificial Intelligence?

Dr Heli Hollnagel, Regulatory Toxicologist, EMEA Science Leader,
Regulatory Toxicologist, EMEA Science Leader, Dow Europe / The
Dow Chemical Company, Switzerland

16.50 Chairman’s Closing Remarks

17.00 End of Day 1

18.00 Evening Reception

Tuesday, 16th September 2025

8.45
Chairman’s Opening Remarks
Dr Volker J. Soballa, Head of Product Stewardship, Corporate ESHQ,
Evonik Industries AG

8.50
The EU’s Chemical Strategy and the Chemicals Industry Package:
Update on the Regulation of ED under the new Regime

  • The EU’s chemical strategy: key elements, main objectives, recent adjustments
  • Requirements within the chemical industry
  • REACH and CLP in the context of the revisions
  • Taxonomy and sustainability: the upcoming framework
  • Dates and transition periods

Julien Fabre, Policy Officer, DG ENV, European Commission

9.30
Update on the Role of Ecotoxicology for Assessing Endocrine Disruption

  • Ecotoxicology and its contribution to the risk assessment of chemicals
  • Endocrine effects vs endocrine disruption – adversity vs activity
  • The OECD framework as common ground
  • Study requirements: EU, Asia, the US
  • Reducing the need for resources: animals, money, lab capacities

Prof Dr Lennart Weltje, Senior Regulatory Scienô€€³st, BASF SE, Germany

10.10 Coffee break

10.40
Alternative Methods: Establishing NAMs and Applying the 3Rs

  • The 3Rs: replacement, refinement and reduction of animals in research
  • Implementing NAMs for safety assessment – progress and limiting factors
  • Experiences with the authorities
  • An overview: NAMs-based research on ED properties of chemicals in fish and amphibians
  • How can NAMs be made more effective within the regulated sector

Dr Natalie Burden, ERT, Head of NAMs Strategy, NC3Rs, United Kingdom

11.20
Optimizing Aquatic Endocrine Screening: Lessons from Dietary Restriction
Studies in Fish and Frogs

  • Presentation of results from Amphibian Metamorphosis Assay (AMA) and Fish Short Term Reproduction Assay (FSTRA) dietary restriction studies
  • Discussion on the implications for data interpretation and the determination of endocrine activity
  • Examination of the implications for the concept of Maximum Tolerable Concentration (MTC) setting
  • Recommendations for incorporating learnings into future endocrine screening protocols

Dr James Wheeler, Global Regulatory Ecotoxicologist, Corteva Agriscience,
The Netherlands

12.00 Lunch break

13.20
Zebrafish Embryo Assays for Endocrine Disruptor Testing – Ongoing and
Future Perspectives

  • Output of the ERGO project: OECD validation of thyroid endpoints in fish
  • Application of cross species AOPs for ED testing
  • New projects: PARC case study and NeXED doctoral network
  • New methods: ED-related DNT and immunotoxicity in zebrafish embryos

Dr Lisa Baumann, Assistant Professor, Amsterdam Institute for Life and
Environment (A-LIFE), Section Environmental Health & Toxicology, Vrije
Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands

14.00
Current Research on Regulating Thyroid Disrupting Chemicals: Insights and Prospects

  • Amphibian test guidelines
  • How to detect thyroid-mediated modality and adversity
  • Amphibian metamorphosis assay (AMA) and/or larval amphibian growth and development assay (LAGDA)?
  • Extended Amphibian Metamorphosis Assay (EAMA) & Larval Amphibian Toxicity Test (LATT)
  • NAMs for regulating thyroid disrupting chemicals

ZhiChao Dang, PhD, Senior Risk Assessor, RIVM National Institute for
Public Health and the Environment, The Netherlands

14.40 Coffee break

15.10
Industry Experience of ED Evaluation for Non-Target Organisms: How
to Reduce Uncertainties

  • Challenges with evaluation EDs for non-target organisms
  • Consistency in weight of evidence evaluation
  • Learnings from recent case studies
  • How to narrow down remaining uncertainties
  • Specificity and sensitivity
  • Methods and available tools for future research

Dr Dan Pickford, Syngenta Fellow, Product Safety Global Strategic
Science, Syngenta Crop Protection AG, United Kingdom

15.50 Chairman’s Closing Remarks

16.00 End of the Conference