The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences journal Environmental Health Perspectives is making available to reporters who follow the effort to find alternatives to animals in research an updated series of papers from the Ispra, Italy, meeting of the Scientific Group on Methodologies for the Safety Evaluation of Chemicals on advances in developing and validating new methods.

The effort to find alternatives has gained international support through SGOMSEC which was established back in 1979 at the initiative of the late Professor Norton Nelson of New York University, who was also a grantee of, and guiding senior advisor to the NIEHS.

William Stokes, D.V.M., NIEHS' full-time coordinator of its alternative methods program, was co-chair of the SGOMSEC meeting with Ermino Marafante of the European Center for Validation of Alternative Methods. Dr. Stokes said, "Use of alternative methods will reduce the numbers of animals required and in some instances reduce animal pain and distress at the same time they provide for improvements in human health protection, environmental protection and animal welfare."