News Story - U.S. Drops Requirement for Some Animal Tests

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U.S. Drops Requirement for Some Animal Tests

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Tuesday, August 20, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

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U.S. Drops Requirement for Some Animal Tests

 

Tue Aug 20,12:06 AM ET

 

 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is quietly

advising that companies end some controversial animal tests,

saying laboratory alternatives exist that are quicker and just

as good, officials said on Monday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tests look for corrosive chemicals and involve shaving

an animal, painting the compound onto its skin and then waiting

for up to two weeks to see if damage results.

 

The recommendations, from a committee set up to find

alternatives to animal tests, go to federal agencies ranging

from the Environmental Protection Agency (

 

news -

web sites) to the Department of

Transportation, which can choose to change their own

regulations.

 

"They will consider these recommendations and, if

applicable to the kind of products that they regulate, then

they will consider revising their guidelines," said Dr. William

Stokes, head of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the

Validation of Alternative Methods.

 

ICCVAM, set up by the federal government to review animal

tests, said four alternative tests exist that do not require

the use of live animals.

 

They are Episkin, based on human collagen, a human skin

cell-based test called EpiDerm, the Rat Skin TER assay, which

uses discs of rat skin, and Corrositex, which also uses layers

of collagen -- the material that holds the skin together.

 

"ICCVAM looked at three in-vitro tests (tests in a lab

dish) for dermal skin corrosivity and concurred that positive

results from these tests could be used to classify chemicals or

products as corrosives and you would not need to use any

animals for that determination," Stokes said in a telephone

interview.

 

"Nearly all chemicals that have corrosive properties are

going to be detected in these tests."

 

FASTER THAN ANIMAL TESTING

 

Stokes did not know whether non-animal tests would cost

less. "I know they will be a lot faster because with animal

tests you have to wait for 14 days after applying the

chemicals," he said. "These tests can be conducted in a day."

 

Stokes said ICCVAM also accepted recommendations from the

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on

replacing photoxocity tests using animals -- another toxic

response skin test involving exposure to light.

 

People for the Ethical treatment of Animals, which opposes

animal tests, welcomed the new ruling, but with reservations.

 

"This is something we have been pushing for at an

international level," PETA spokesperson Jessica Sandler said.

 

But, she noted, if any of the four tests gets a negative

result, meaning it does not show a chemical is corrosive, the

finding has to be confirmed using an animal test.

 

She said the rulings did not affect the use of the Draize

test -- in which chemicals are dripped into a rabbit's eye.

 

"It is crazy that in 2002 we are still dripping chemicals

into animals' eyes," Sandler said. "They need to confine animal

tests to the trashbin of history."

 

 

 

 

 

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