Toxicity testing in the 21st century: Better results, less use of animals

The National Academy of Sciences was asked by the EPA to find alternatives to conventional chemicals that are harmful for the human biology. NAS has found advances in the fields of molecular biology, bio-technology and other fields which advance the ways of how scientists evaluate the health risks posed by potentially toxic chemicals found at low levels in the environment. The new methods are faster and less expensive, and reduce the need for the involvement of animals by substituting tests on human cells, cellular components and tissues. Experts agree that for one, agency rulemaking provides the legal flexibility to implement a new toxicity testing program using existing laws. The new strategy has the potential to join the different approaches to toxicity into a world-wide system while a possible lack of hazard information on thousands of compounds hinders a proper debate about the effects of environmental chemicals. Some experts also had it that the toxicity testing can use significant perturbations of human toxicity pathways, not animal experiments. Others call for a change in the federal science law infrastructure for the new regime.