The Nordic Council, representing the governments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, has called on the European Commission to accelerate plans for identifying assessing and possibly banning toiletry ingredients that may be endocrine disruptors, (EDCs).

Sweden and Denmark in the past have extensively done battle with European authorities over EDCs. In July of this year, Sweden published a list of phthalates found in everyday items, many of them imported, which it suspects of being endocrine disruptors. A few months earlier in the year its environment minister threatened to sue the Commission in the European Court of Justice over delays in identifying certain chemicals, accusing it of bowing to industry pressure.

In their new report, The Cost of Inaction, the Nordic countries point to the high cost to society of ignoring possible endocrine disruptors. To estimate the incidence of the male reproductive health problems linked to EDCs, they use collected health records from the five countries, and on the basis of Swedish data extrapolate this to the population of the EU 28.

The report calculates the proportion of health problems believed attributable to EDCs at about 20% and on this basis concludes that the male reproductive health problems cost the EU €592 million a year.

Authorities in Brussels are currently holding a public consultation on a scientific method to identify the chemicals, which ends on Jan. 16, 2015. Depending on action taken, the EU could become the first authority in the world to regulate endocrine disruptors.

In 2011, the UK and German governments lobbied the EU to restrict the definition of EDCs to only the most potent chemicals, a move criticised sharply by health advocates.

Michael Warhurst of the campaign group Chem Trust, said companies should focus on developing and producing products that don't contain hormone disruptors and other problem chemicals. "This will give them a competitive advantage as controls on these chemicals become stricter around the world, and as consumers become more aware of this issue," he said.

Speaking to the British newspaper The Guardian, Peter Smith, executive director for product stewardship at the European chemical industry federation CEFIC, said the report's attribution of health problems to EDCs was "arbitrary."

Andreas Kortenkamp, a human toxicologist at Brunel University in London, pointed to "very good, strong evidence from animal and cell line test systems" and asserted that "industry lobbying has put regulation back by 3-5 years, which was entirely the intention."

The toxicologist led a 2012 review of EDCs for the EU, which found new regulations were needed. Another review in 2012 by the European Environment Agency advised "a precautionary approach to many of these chemicals until their effects are more fully understood."