Animal rights groups call for urgent ECHA action

Unnecessary animal testing may be carried out in near future unless ECHA warns firms of obligations, say groups

Four European and two US animal rights and ethics groups today wrote to Geert Dancet, executive director of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), to demand urgent action to prevent companies from undertaking unnecessary animal testing. The organisations are the Humane Society International - Europe, Eurogroup for Animals, European Coalition to End Animal Experiments, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Europe, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals US and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

In their open letter, which was also sent to members of the European Commission, the president of the European Parliament and industry associations, among others, the groups warn of three pressing issues that could force firms to undertake testing in the near future:

• Pre-emptive testing to meet the 2010 deadline - the worry is that companies are rushing ahead and commissioning tests before they check on the availability of data through substances information exchange fora (SIEFs) as required by the REACH Regulation. The slow formation of many SIEFs is exacerbating this problem and the groups call on ECHA to issue a warning to firms.
• Redundant tests within Annex VIII - the groups point to inconsistencies and a lack of clarity in the testing requirements set out in Annexes VIII, IX and X, which may lead to firms carrying out unnecessary testing. They call on ECHA to advise firms that for substances manufactured or imported in sufficient tonnage to qualify for Annex IX and X testing, they must not undertake the Annex VIII repeated dose and reproductive/developmental toxicity tests.
• Improving the utility of Agency third party scrutiny procedure for test proposals - noting ECHA's publication of the first testing proposal for consultation this month, the groups say this provided insufficient information to allow others to meaningfully understand what tests are proposed and whether these are necessary. They also call for the opportunity to contribute information other than quantitative test data, such as suggestions for read-across or other intelligent testing strategy techniques.

The groups request a meeting with Mr Dancet to discuss the issues with the aim of ensuring animal testing is only done as a last resort.

• Joint NGO letter