How's the federal government doing in its effort to reduce the use of animals in tests by finding alternative testing methods? An annual report made available today points to regulatory acceptance of new testing methods that reduce animal use in assessing whether industrial and consumer products can cause allergic skin reactions, acute poisoning or chemical burns.

These new methods can substitute for the old tests which used large numbers of rodents and rabbits, and sometimes involved considerable pain and distress compared to the new methods.

The report, the Annual Progress Report of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods, can be obtained by contacting the National Toxicology Program Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM) at National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (http://www.niehs.nih.gov), P.O. Box 12233, MD EC-17, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709; 919-541-2384 (phone); 919-541-0947 (fax); or niceatm@niehs.nih.gov. The report is also available on the NIEHS' ICCVAM/NICEATM website at: NTP Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods.

Replacing a standing committee at NIEHS, ICCVAM was formally designated as a permanent interagency coordinating committee by Congress and the President in the year 2000. With representation from 15 federal agencies, ICCVAM evaluates the scientific validity of new and alternative testing methods. The committee develops test recommendations based on the technical evaluations, which are forwarded to the federal agencies for final acceptance decisions.