Endocrine Disruptors

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Intro
Agenda
Speakers
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Venue
Presentations

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

16.20
The Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP): Update by the US EPA

  • The regulatory framework(s) on ED assessment
  • The EDSP: aims and the current state of affairs
  • The EPA’s expectations on testing
    • The role of NAMs
  • Research activities and recent learnings

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

 17.00   Chairman’s Closing Remarks

17.10    End of Day 1

 

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