BRUSSELS -- The International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) has criticized the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report on the dangers of human exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals.

Hubert Mandery, council secretary of ICCA, summed up his organization's core criticism: "The report fails to meet the standards expected for sound scientific work." Chemical substances undergo rigorous scientific scrutiny regarding possible toxicological or ecotoxicological effects, he added.

The WHO/UNEP report suggests that several effects on human health are linked to environmental exposure to chemicals without proof of a causal relationship, ignoring the important role played by other factors such as lifestyle, according to ICCA.

Brussels-based ICCA encouraged both governments and intergovernmental agencies to use consistent and objective criteria for evaluating studies and a transparent framework for evaluating the overall weight of the scientific evidence.

This means that agencies should consider all relevant safety data and not rely simply on one piece of information, the organization added.