EPA Plans to ‘Reduce Reliance on Animal Testing’ in the U.S.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently released a new Strategic Plan for Evaluating the Toxicity of Chemicals, which reevaluates the way that we test products in America. The report, which was put together by the Science Policy Council in the EPA’s Office of the Science Advisor, starts to shine a little hope for the future cessation of animal testing as the government looks for new approaches to ensuring the public’s safety and a clean environment.
The plan concludes by stating that “the new paradigm should facilitate evaluating the susceptibility of different life-stages and genetic variations in the population, understanding the mechanisms by which toxicity occurs, and considering the risks of concurrent, cumulative exposure to multiple and diverse chemicals, while at the same time significantly reducing reliance on animal testing for assessing human risk.”
Read up on more about the potential future of animal testing in two very well written articles that include a lot of stats and scientific facts: “Are the lab rat’s days numbered?” in the Boston Globe and “New EPA Report Recommends Moving Away from Animal Testing” at the PETA Files. And be sure to read the EPA report in its entirety, too!
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