Sweden has said it will sue the European Commission in the European Court of Justice over delays in identifying certain chemicals as endocrine disruptors. Environment minister Lena Ek told Swedish media that the delays are being caused by the “European chemical lobby,” which is putting various commissioners under pressure.

Ek said Sweden had decided to sue because “we want the court to force the Commission to deliver the scientific criteria so we can start moving toward a poison-free society.”

By December 2013, the Commission was due to set criteria for identifying endocrine disruptors in numerous products, but failed to do so, despite appeals from Sweden, the environment minister said. “Hormone disruptors are becoming a huge problem,” she added. “In some places in Sweden we see double-sexed fish. We have scientific reports on how this affects young boys and girls, and other serious effects.”

Countering Ek’s remarks, a spokesman for environment commissioner Janez Potocnik blamed the delays on the “complexity of the issue, the evolving science and the diverging views existing among scientists and among stakeholders. We take the issue very seriously, and we are doing our best to address the issue,” he said.

Scandinavian countries have long been the first EU member states to seek bans on suspected endocrine disruptors. Sweden, for example, banished bisphenol A (BPA) from baby food packaging at the beginning of 2013 – see Plasteurope.com of 26.04.2012 – and has called for an EU-wide ban. In mid-2012, Denmark said it would ban the low molecular weight phthalate compounds DEHP, DBP, DIBP and BBP as suspected endocrine disruptors – see Plasteurope.com of 04.09.2012.