29/05/2008
On 22 May 2008, the European Parliament (EP) approved a draft Commission regulation laying down test methods for chemicals under the REACH regulation. MEPs tried to promote alternatives to animal testing by threatening to vote down the new legislation if the Commission did not give a commitment to change the recognized testing procedures. They secured assurances from the Commission that more streamlined and transparent procedures will be implemented for the acceptance of non-animal testing methods.The European Parliament had pointed out that the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) had validated a number of new tests that were not included in the draft regulation.

Trade unions are not convinced that these "alternative tests" are always certain to produce sufficiently robust toxicological data. And they argue that there are no circumstances in which the search for alternatives to animal testing can make less reliable testing or evaluation techniques acceptable. "Industry has often used animal welfare as an excuse for not spending on animal testing before placing chemicals on the market. This means that workers end up being used as the guinea-pigs", said Laurent Vogel, Director of the ETUI-REHS Health and Safety Department.