 the potential health and ecological effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals has become a high visibility environmental issue . 
 the 1990s have witnessed a growing concern , both on the part of the scientific community and the public , that environmental chemicals may be causing widespread effects in humans and in a variety of fish and wildlife species . 
 this growing concern led the committee on the environment and natural resources ( cenr ) of the national science and technology council to identify the endocrine disruptor issue as a major research initiative in early 1995 and subsequently establish an ad hoc working group on endocrine disruptors . 
 the objectives of the working group are to 1 ) develop a planning framework for federal research related to human and ecological health effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals ; 2 ) conduct an inventory of ongoing federal research programs ; and 3 ) identify research gaps and develop a coordinated interagency plan to address priority research needs . 
 this communication summarizes the activities of the federal government in defining a common framework for planning an endocrine disruptor research program and in assessing the status of the current effort . after developing the research framework and compiling an inventory of active research projects supported by the federal government in fiscal year 1996 , the cenr working group evaluated the current federal effort by comparing the ongoing activities with the research 
 needs identified in the framework . 
 the analysis showed that the federal government supports considerable research on human health effects , ecological effects , and exposure assessment , with a predominance of activity occurring under human health effects . 
 the analysis also indicates that studies on reproductive development and carcinogenesis are more prevalent than studies on neurotoxicity and immunotoxicity , that mammals ( mostly laboratory animals ) are the main species under study , and that chlorinated dibenzodioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls are the most commonly studied chemical classes . 
 comparison of the inventory with the research needs should allow identification of underrepresented research areas in need of attention.imagesfigure 1 
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