Toxicity Testing Symposium on toxicity testing, realizing the National Research Council's vision and strategy

• Pages: 55-55

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010 ❧ Page 55

Copyright © 2010, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, Sept./Oct. 2010

ELI Report

On June 21 at the

National Press Club, a

standing-room-only crowd

listened to a ELI sympo-

sium to assess a shift in how

scientists test chemicals for

harmful ef‌fects. e event,

e Future of Chemical

Toxicity Testing in the

United States: Creating a

Roadmap to Implement

the NRC’s Vision and

Strategy, came three years

after the publication of a

landmark report by the

National Research Council

that developed a long-range

vision for toxicity testing

and a strategy for imple-

menting that vision. e

NRC’s report, “Toxicity

Testing in the 21st Centu-

ry: A Vision and a Strategy”

calls for a revolution in the

science of testing chemicals.

Drawing on advances

that are now available or

rapidly evolving across a

range of disciplines, the

NRC envisions a new

paradigm for chemical test-

ing that is not only more

predictive of adverse ef‌fects

in humans, but also faster

and cheaper than current

models and less dependent

on whole-animal-based

testing methodologies. e

NRC recognized that im-

plementation of its recom-

mendations would require

a substantial commitment

of resources, demand the

involvement of multiple or-

ganizations in government,

academia, industry, and the

public, and could require a

decade or two to achieve.

Panelists engaged the

120 participants — who

hailed from private prac-

tice, NGOs, state and fed-

eral government agencies,

including EPA and the U.S.

Food and Drug Admin-

istration, academia, and

industry — as they explored

how ef‌fectively we have

implemented the NRC’s

proposed changes, from a

legal and policy perspective;

the obstacles that remain;

and what is left to be done.

is event was supported

and co-sponsored by the

Johns Hopkins University

Bloomberg School of Public

Health and its Center for

Alternatives to Animal Test-

ing, in collaboration with

the Animal Legal Defense

Fund and the Center for

Animal Law Studies at Lew-

is & Clark Law School. EPA

staf‌f were also instrumental

in developing the event.

EPA Assistant Adminis-

trator Steve Owens of the

Of‌f‌ice of Chemical Safety

and Pollution Prevention

gave the keynote address.

Owens emphasized the need

for solid science and accept-

ed methods, as well as hav-

ing a scientif‌ic rationale that

is “clear and transparent.”

He added, “We also must be

clear that we are absolutely

committed to moving away

from the traditional ap-

proaches for assessing toxic-

ity to the new era of testing

that utilizes more heavily

high-throughput assays and

computational methods. . . .

We are committed to doing

that. . . . Let me assure you

that we are in this for the

long haul and that we’ll be

right there with you as we

all move forward to bring

toxicity testing into the

twenty-f‌irst century.”

is event was timely,

as a bill to reform the Toxic

Substances Control Act

was introduced in the U.S.

House of Representatives

in July. e reform measure

followed the introduction of

a similar bill in the Senate

in April. Both bills contain

new provisions on in vitro

testing and reduction of

animal-based testing.

According to ELI Senior

Attorney Bruce Myers, “An

important goal of this sym-

posium was to help ensure

that toxicity testing reform

— especially as it has been

envisioned and articulated

by the National Research

Council — continues to

advance, subject to rigor-

ous stakeholder debate that

both engages and reaches

beyond the scientif‌ic com-

munity. Although much can

be accomplished adminis-

tratively, the modernization

of chemical testing must

also be part of the legislative

conversation as Congress

draws nearer to enacting an

overhaul of our principal

chemical regulation law.”

To date, EPA has played

an important role. In ad-

dition to commissioning

the ef‌forts that culminated

in the NRC vision report,

EPA has entered into a

f‌ive-year memorandum

of understanding with

two National Institutes of

Health bodies in an ef‌fort

to “guide the construction

and governance of a de-

tailed research strategy to

make the NRC Commit-

tee’s vision a reality.”

Last year, EPA issued

its Strategic Plan for

Evaluating the Toxicity

of Chemicals, which the

agency characterized as

“a blueprint for ensuring

a leadership role for EPA

in pursuing the directions

and recommendations

presented in the 2007

NRC report.”

Symposium presenta-

tions and audio are avail-

able online at: http://tox-

testingdc.wordpress.com/.

Toxicity Testing Symposium on toxicity testing, realizing the

National Research Council’s vision and strategy

EPA Assistant Administrator Steve Owens of the Ofce of Chemi-

cal Safety and Pollution Prevention gave the keynote address.