Endocrine Disruptors

Monday, 14th September 2026

8.30 Registration and Coffee

9.00
Opening Remarks
Dr Bjoern Nehls, Director, Chem-Academy, and
Dr Volker J. Soballa, Vice President, Head of Product Stewardship, Corporate
ESHQ, Evonik Industries AG

9.10
European Chemicals Regulation Within Global Challenges

• Regulatory initiatives and insights: where does the EU go?
• Competitiveness from a European point of view
• Impact of the REACH revision being abandoned
• The concept of global harmonization: under pressure?
• How does the economic state of play affect European regulation?

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

9.50
Endocrine Disruptors: From EU to Domestic Regulation

• ED regulation within the EU, and its impact on domestic initiatives
• Phasing out animal testing
• Requirements related to CLP
• Upcoming changes

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

10.30      Coffee break

11.00
OECD Work for Identifying and Classifying EDs

• Endocrine disropters under the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling
• Method validation and improvement
• The role of NAMs and what is key to their acceptance

Elise Grignard, PhD, Policy Analyst, OECD Environment

11.40
Endocrine Activity and Endocrine Disruption: Research on Articles

• Current projects and the are articles it’s focussed on
• Active vs disrupting properties
• Which materials require further investigation
• How does science transform into regulation?
• Remaining uncertainties and what can be done

Dr Christian Kirchnawy, Team Leader, OFI – Austrian Research Institute
for Chemistry and Technology, Austria

12.20      Lunch break

13.50
Endocrine Disruptors: Legislation and Interrelations

• The legal framework within the EU: ED regulation and how it connects to different interfaces
• REACH and its impact on ED regulation
• ED regulation and its impact on CLP
• Enhancing science within legislative processes

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

14.30
Alternative Methods: Establishing NAMs

• Projects with NAMs on safety assessments
• Regulatory and study requirements
• Experiences with different stakeholders so far
• Case study: assessing endocrine activity in aquatic vertebrates in the absence of in vivo data
• How to apply NAMs in regulatory decision-making, and what gaps
• need to be closed

Julie Krzykwa, Ph.D., Scientific Program Manager, HESI Global, USA

15.10      Coffee break

15.40
How Industries are Perceived by the Public

• A consultant’s point of view: chemicals, crop protection, and
• related industries in the media
• Social demands and why we need industrial services
• How reputation can be measured and why reputation is valuable
• What are the limits set by public perception of these industry branches?
• Why we need sober science as a driver

Graeme Taylor, CEO, Founder of Endure Consulting, and Partner, EU
Focus Group, United Kingdom

Tuesday, 15th September 2026

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

8.50
Japan’s Regulation on Endocrine Disruptors

• Understanding endocrine activity and adversity
• Japan’s regulatory strategy and research projects
• Questions to be dealt with
• Update on testing requirements and animal welfare
• The Japanese Chemical Substances Control Law: Environmental
• risk assessment

Prof Taisen Iguchi, National Institute for Basic Biology, Japan

9.30
Amphibian Assays for Identification and Classification of Thyroid-
Disrupting Chemicals: Developments and Challenges

• Main advances and ongoing challenges in this area relating to amphibian assays
• How can they be used for regulatory purposes?
• Conclusions on the human health field

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

10.10      Coffee break

10.40
Assessing Endocrine Disruption – Ecotoxicological Insights

• Ecotoxicology: current research and gaps to close
• What’s the role of ecotoxicology for the assessment of potentially endocrine disrupting chemicals?
• Understanding and integrating population-level effects
• Adversity vs activity
• Methods and study requirements: the EU vs US and Asia?
• Reducing animal testing: concepts and their practical limits

Prof Dr Lennart Weltje, Senior Regulatory Scientist, BASF SE, Germany

11.20
Research Methods and ED Related Projects

• Decision logic for assessing the reliability of data
• Conclusions for interpreting data
• Case study on Amphibian Metamorphosis Assay (AMA) and Fish Short Term Reproduction Assay (FSTRA) dietary restriction studies
• Thoughts on the use of NAMs
• How to set up endocrine screening protocols
• Learnings from ECETOC’s ED related research

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

12.00      Lunch break

13.20
ED Criteria Under CLP

• The assessment of endocrine disruptors under European regulations
• Hazard classes within the CLP regulation
• UBA’s work within the ERGO project
• How does the project trickle down to regulation and guidances?
• Research gaps and further needs

Dr Jürgen Arning, IV 2.3 Chemicals, German Federal Environment Agency

14.00
Challenges with the Harmonized Hazard Classification from
the Industry’s Point of View

• Compiling data for hazard assessments
• Hazard classes and CLP: practical aspects
• Impact on interfaces within the product stewardship
• Limits to harmonization…
• … and how to deal with them

Teresa Bernheim, Corporate Communications, Manager
Chemicals Policy, LANXESS Deutschland GmbH, Germany

14.40      Coffee break

15.10
Endocrine Disruptors: Testing

• The range of studies for testing potential EDs
• Methodological requirements: the OECD Conceptual framework for Testing and Assessment of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals
• Project management and timelines
• Current bottlenecks with study capacities
• Cost management
• Experiences with study models

Dr Melanie Lichtenberger, Managing Director, ibacon GmbH

15.50      Chairman’s Closing Remarks

16.00      End of the Conference