WASHINGTON (CN) - The Consumer Product Safety Commission plans to update its policy statement on animal testing to encourage manufactures to use alternative testing methods.
For more environmental law news, click here to check out Courthouse News' Environmental Law Review.
The methods are approved by the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods.
Under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, makers of products that are toxic, corrosive, irritants, flammable, combustible, or strong sensitizers must test the products and label them with regard to the hazards they pose.
While neither the act nor CPSC regulations require animal testing, manufacturers frequently rely it to determine the effects of their products on biological tissue.
In 1984, the CPSC adopted its first policy statement encouraging alternative testing methods. In 1993, the National Institute of Health established the Interagency Coordinating Committee to review, optimize, and validate alternative test methods to reduce, refine or replace the use of animals in testing.
The specific recommendations cited by the CPSC reduce the number of test animals used as thresholds to determine if more wide scale testing is required.
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.