Immediate action is needed to spare literally millions of animals from hideously cruel deaths in chemical-poisoning tests. Please send a polite letter to your member of European Parliament (MEP) and urge her or him to advocate for a strictly non-animal testing strategy under the new EU Chemicals Policy. You may wish to make some or all of the points listed below or, better yet, put the information into your own words to create a personalised letter.
To find out who your MEP is, go to www.europarl.eu.int/whoswho/default.htm.
Write to your MEP at:
European Parliament
Rue Wiertz
Brussels 1047
Belgium
Chemical Safety Assessment
Animal testing should not be carried out for the purpose of completing chemical safety reports. When animal tests are carried out, all such testing must be subject to rigorous data-sharing provisions, stepwise testing strategies, and other measures designed to limit animal testing.
Data Requirements
Animal-based toxicity testing is scientifically flawed as well as ethically unacceptable. Animal test results are unreliable when applied to humans and misleading when compared to actual chemical exposure. Toxicity tests on animals have not been validated to modern standards. The proposed chemicals policy offers the EU an opportunity to lead the world in the use of modern non-animal tests. By using faster and more efficient non-animal tests, it is possible to gather enough relevant information on large numbers of chemicals to classify and regulate harmful substances.
Data Sharing/Consortia Formation
When registering either phase-in or non-phase-in substances (those in use already and those marketed for the first time), if a company will not participate in data-sharing arrangements, that company must be subject to penalties for non-compliance with measures designed to prevent duplicate animal testing. If a company refuses to share data, its registration should be refused.
Evaluation
All proposals for animal testing should be made public for 120 days (as is the case in a similar chemical-testing programme in the US). This public comment period would allow public scrutiny of test plans so that further data may be brought forward in order to prevent duplicate animal testing.
Authorisation
Where a chemical is authorised because it possesses a particular hazardous property, animal testing to investigate other properties of that chemical should stop on the grounds that the chemical is already known to be hazardous, and its use should be restricted.
The EU Chemicals Agency
A central unit should exist within the EU Chemicals Agency with a mandate to prevent duplicative animal testing, including the oversight of data-sharing arbitrations among companies. Only a centralised system can hope to prevent duplication of animal testing. There must be appropriate contacts between the Agency and representatives of animal protection organisations, in addition to those already proposed for industry and environmental/consumer groups.
Other
The use of animals to test chemicals is immoral, and while rapid action is needed to restrict the use of harmful substances, animal testing is not an appropriate way to achieve that end. Non-animal tests exist, and our knowledge of these non-animal tests is growing all the time. Non-animal testing and proper use of pre-existing data (including from human exposure) is the only ethically acceptable way to restrict the use of harmful substances.
There are countless substances marketed today that are known to be harmful to people and the environment. Animal testing has not helped to prevent their use.
For new chemicals, the actual ‘need’ for a substance must also be measured—we can do without another brand of paint, oven cleaner or any other ‘new and improved’ chemical product when its development means the death of thousands of animals.
The EU must also increase efforts to hasten the development and acceptance of new non-animal tests. At present, EU funding in this area represents only a tiny fraction of the overall research budget, and far more can be done. The chemical industry should be compelled to meet its obligation to provide funding, laboratory space, personnel and data to be used in the validation of non-animal test methods. There is widespread agreement that non-animal testing is the way forward, and it is time to make the vision a reality.
Please also visit BUAV.org and click on “Sign our petitions” to add your name to the list of citizens who are urging the EU to greatly increase its efforts to promote the development and acceptance of more humane and reliable non-animal toxicity tests.
