The ECVAM Scientific Committee (ESAC) has today endorsed new safety test methods involving no animal experiments as well as a reductin strategy. “This decision is a milestone in the development of alterntive methods and we are proud that the cosmetics industry played a significant role in the development and validation of these methods,” commented Bertil Heerink, director general of the European cosmetics trade association, Colipa.
The newly validated tests are said to be key methods for the cosmetics industry. They include:
Skin Irritation
With this new replacement method (Episkin) animals will be no longer required to test the potential for irritation of any chemical substance. This includes tests on chemicals used in other consumer products and not only cosmetics. Colipa member companies were heavily involved in the research to achieve this important target. This is an important step towards achieving the goals set by the European cosmetics directive; ie to phase out animal tests by 2009 and 2013.
Severe eye irritants testing
The ECVAM statement confirms the usefulness of some specific types of tests called “organotypic" to identify severe eye irritants and the ICCVAM assessment conducted in the US on these tests. It is an important step towards the complete elimination of animals in eye irritation testing. It focuses on severe eye irritation and has the potential to significantly reduce the number of animals needed for testing chemicals. The development was achieved by a successful research cooperation effort among different Industry sectors, Regulators and Academia.
Skin allergy
The new validated test strategy will enable a significant reduction in the number of animals required to assess the potential for skin allergy hazard for chemical substances. This reduction approach is particularly welcome in the context of the new REACH legislation which requires a large number of chemical substances to be assessed in the coming years.