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Evaluating Potential Endocrine Disrupting Effects of Chemicals in Humans: Challenges for Litigation

Event | 10.30.12, 12:00 AM UTC - 12:00 AM UTC

The concept of endocrine disruption has spawned controversial claims that low-level exposures to synthetic chemicals (such as PCBs, dioxins, and some pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and food additives), and certain naturally occurring substances in our environment may disrupt hormonal processes.  Endocrine disruption has been alleged to result in such adverse human health effects as diabetes, thyroid disease, endometriosis, infertility, prostate cancer, and even obesity.

The potential for exposure to alleged “endocrine disrupting chemicals” (EDCs) has implicated materials in a variety of everyday items.  Some groups say these claimed EDCs pose significant risks of substantial harm to children and adults, even at very low concentrations.  Among the implicated items are toys, food, drinking water, consumer products, and cosmetics.
Over the past nine months, new regulatory screening regimes have been introduced by the U.S. EPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP) and the European Union’s Directorate-General for the Environment. These regimes will assist the agencies in preparing a “priority list” of substances to be screened, collecting hazard information on individual chemicals, and developing scientific criteria for the identification of what will be regulated as “actual” endocrine disruptors.

Join Exponent and Crowell & Moring, LLP for a discussion of current controversies that surround the regulation, the risk assessment of potential EDCs, and the impending legal challenges facing product manufacturers and distributors.

  • Background on EDCs
  • Analysis of the New Testing Guidelines
  • Impact for Potential Regulation and Litigation 

This webinar is approved for 1.0 CLE credit by the State Bar of California. All attendees will receive a certificate of attendance to use for individual applications to other states.

Additional Speakers

James C. Lamb, IV, Ph.D., DABT, Fellow ATS
Principal Scientist, Exponent

Barbara H. Neal, DABT
Senior Managing Scientist, Exponent


For more information, please visit these areas: Product Risk Management

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Event | 02.20.25

Has the Buss Stopped? Recoupment Today

Has the Buss Stopped? Recoupment Today: In 1997, the California Supreme Court decided Buss v. Superior Court. In Buss, the court concluded that a liability insurer that defended a mixed action could seek reimbursement from the insured for the defense costs associated with the claims that were not even potentially covered. Since then, numerous courts have held that insurers are entitled to recoup their defense costs associated with uncovered claims or causes of action. On the other hand, a significant number of courts have rejected insurers’ right to recoupment, at least in the absence of a policy provision granting the insurer that right. Some commentators have even suggested that the current judicial trend might be away from permitting insurers to recoup their defense costs. Is that correct? Has the Buss stopped? This panel of coverage experts will analyze insurers’ claimed right to recoupment today, and offer their perspectives on what the law on recoupment should perhaps be and might be in the future.

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