U.S. Drops Requirement for Some Animal Tests

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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. "