A roadmap for modernising chemical safety testing in the UK
During 2023 one of the hot topics amongst those seeking to transition away from animal testing was the idea of building roadmaps to help create a shared vision of how change could be achieved.
At the 12th World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences in Niagara Falls, Canada, there was a session on the ‘Role of Roadmaps to Accelerate the Transition to Animal-Free Science’.
At our own Lush Prize Conference in 2023 we asked ‘How can roadmaps help bring forward an end to all animal use in chemical safety testing?’
And at the end of the year, in December 2023, the EU held a large consultation workshop on ‘the Commission roadmap towards phasing out animal testing for chemical safety assessments with around 400 participants.
As part of Lush Prize’s wider work prior to the 2023 conference, we asked Ethical Consumer Research Association to explore what a roadmap for modernising chemical safety testing in the UK might look like.
The research reviewed pre-existing roadmaps and research in this area and concluded that the following ten elements would help create a comprehensive map in the UK:
1. The establishment of a new institutional structure with a responsibility to implement the plan
2. The movement of funding and investment from animal research into new technologies
3. The active facilitation of interdisciplinary collaboration and networking
4. The development of new non-animal tests, test batteries and multidisciplinary non-animal approaches in key areas of need
5. The early engagement of regulators
6. Investment in skills, training and education in the new technologies
7. International collaboration and engagement to achieve consistency and harmonisation around new standards
8. Monitoring, evaluation and reporting against targets and including a final transition date of 2035
9. A work plan to tackle specific challenging toxicity endpoints
10. Systematic quality reviews of all current tests to provide evidence, prioritising those known to be redundant and duplicative for early phase out.
More explanation as to why each of these areas would be useful appear in the main report.
You can read the full report here.
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