The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it would abandon its plan to phase out all use of mammals in testing by 2035, which had sparked widespread controversies. Some argues that animal testing is a gold standard in testing the chemical safety, and in vitro tests lack of biological complexity and have limitations in simulating human physiology, which means animal testing is insufficient to replace animal testing. Others believe that EPA's decision will encourage stakeholders to choose animal testing because it is much simpler and more convenient.
As we all know, scientists are inclined to conduct animal testing to assess chemical or product safety in many fields including scientific research and pharmaceutical development. In certain scenarios, scientists will end animal life to evaluate the potential hazard to human health and the environment and some test methods may require media lethal dose (LD50), which definitely lead to animal death in pain. In toxicology, non-animal testing is advocated to replace the traditional animal testing, known as the 3R principle (refinement, reduction, and replacement).
Statistics reveal that the EPA relies on significant animals to assess the safety of pesticides and identify the hazard of chemicals in drinking water. Most of these studies are conducted by mammals such as mice, rats, and rabbits. The amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in 2016 requires EPA to abandon animal testing, though this TSCA did not specify an exact deadline.
EPA's plan to phase out animal testing in 2019
In 2019, the U.S. EPA planned to reduce requests for and funding of mammal studies by animal testing according to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The EPA takes the following steps to reduce, replace, and refine animal testing requirements:
- Reduction in animal testing: The EPA will reduce its requests for, and funding of, mammal studies by 30% by 2025 and eliminate all mammal study requests and funding by 2035.
- Initiative to non-animal testing: The EPA encourages to adopt new approach methodologies (NAMs), such as organoids and organs-on-a-chip, computer simulations, 3D printing in cell culture, to reduce animal testing.
The 2025 and 2035 plan were re-discussed in the EPA work plan in June 2020. However, they were eliminated in the 2021 work plan. It is said that the 2025 and 2035 plan is "abandoned", as it shown in an e-mail.
ChemRadar Insights
The EPA's 2035 plan is both an incentive for technological innovation and a challenge to existing NAMs. Specifically speaking, animal testing is expensive and time-consuming, and significant animals are used in testing which lead to animal death. From a humanitarian perspective, non-animal testing methods will reduce animal death and relieve suffering, and protect animals. EPA encourages the adoption of alternative methods which may improve technological innovation and development, reduce costs and time, thereby improve the relevance of experimental results. However, sometimes non-animal testing cannot provide a perfect model for human research and some researches need an entire organism to understand the function and interaction.
Although EPA abandons its 2035 plan to eliminate animal testing, more creative solutions and investments will be provided for the elimination of animal testing. With the advancement of alternative methods and technologies, we believe that the transition to non-animal testing will achieve. We also believe that this transition will effectively make any meaningful animal testing impossible. We shall keep it in our mind that the transition to non-animal testing does not rely on a specific time but our permanent commitment.
