The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will finally begin to test the health effects of certain pesticide chemicals suspected of disrupting human or animal endocrine systems.

EPA announced yesterday that it will order chemical manufacturers to test the safety of 67 different chemicals commonly used in pesticides. Testing is set to begin this summer.

According to EPA, “Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interact with and possibly disrupt the hormones produced or secreted by the human or animal endocrine system, which regulates growth, metabolism and reproduction.” Administrator Lisa Jackson said, “Endocrine disruptors can cause lifelong health problems – especially for children.”

It’s no small matter that EPA announced the beginning of the testing process just three months into the Obama administration. EPA is almost a decade late in beginning the real work of its Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program. Assessing the health effects of endocrine disruptors was simply not a priority of the Bush administration.

Congress mandated EPA assess the safety of potential endocrine disruptors when it passed the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996. The law required EPA to “implement the program” – a vague term – “not later than 3 years after August 3, 1996.” Although EPA officially established the program in 1998, it has made scant progress since.

According to The Washington Post, the testing and data collection phase will last about two years, and it “could take the agency another year to make a final determination about the chemicals' effect on hormone disruption.”

In the event any of the chemicals are found to be endocrine disruptors, the Act requires EPA to take action “necessary to ensure the protection of public health.”

The Act remains ambiguous as to whether EPA is required to take action against Gary Busey.