Contributed by Steven Gibb
Program Officer for Strategic Communications
Environmental Studies and Toxicology
National Research Council
Toxicity testing is about to enter an exciting period of
change, built on scientific advances in areas such as biology,
biotechnology, and other fields.
Toxicity tests are conducted to evaluate chemicals for their
potential to cause birth defects, cancer, and other adverse
health effects. At present, the human environment contains
some tens of thousands of chemical substances, the majority
of which have not been evaluated by rigorous toxicity tests.
Current test methods are largely conducted using laboratory
animals, such as rats and mice. Such tests are expensive and
time consuming, placing limitations on the number of chemicals
that can be tested. The use of animals for toxicity testing
also involves extrapolations to humans.
Recognizing that the time has come for more innovative approaches
to toxicity testing, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), asked the National Research Council (NRC) to develop
a longrange vision and a strategy to advance toxicity testing.
The recent report of the NRC Committee on Toxicity Testing
and Assessment of Environmental Agents presents an exciting
new vision for toxicity testing that has the potential to
result in dramatic improvements in the way in which the health
risks posed by chemicals in our environment are evaluated.
The committee’s vision takes full advantage of the
ongoing revolution in biology and biotechnology, which is
making it possible to study the effects of chemicals using
cells, cellular components, and tissues— preferably
of human origin—rather than whole animals. The report
envisions a new toxicity-testing system that relies mainly
on understanding “toxicity pathways”—the
cellular response pathways that can result in adverse health
effects when sufficiently perturbed.
New era - continued on page 7
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