Industrial chemicals are a broad class of tens of thousands of chemicals that can be part of consumer products and industrial processes. These chemicals are used in oil and gas industries, paper production, manufacturing, construction, fertilizers and pesticides, detergents and soaps, and many other areas.
PETA Science Consortium International e.V. works to advance reliable testing approaches to assess the potential toxicity of these chemicals by funding method development and testing, partnering with other scientists on research projects, organising training opportunities, donating free in vitro equipment, and publishing and presenting on our work.
Regulatory agencies overseeing industrial chemicals include the European Chemicals Agency, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), and the Indian Department of Chemicals & Petro-Chemicals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers. We work globally with these agencies and others to ensure that scientifically sound, non-animal approaches accepted in one region are accepted in others.
To accelerate the use of robust, human-relevant, non-animal approaches, the Science Consortium is funding the testing of several chemicals (surfactants and silanes) in two- and three-dimensional human respiratory cell models. The goal of this initiative, which began after a 2016 workshop co-organised by the Science Consortium, is to show the value of non-animal approaches to predict the acute toxicity of inhaled substances instead of testing on animals.
Education about new approach methodologies (NAMs), how or where to conduct them, and how to interpret data from them is essential to their use. The Science Consortium co-organises a webinar series with the EPA on the use of NAMs in risk assessment and organises in-person training opportunities to familiarise regulators with non-animal test methods.
Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals Regulation (EU)
We focus extensively on minimising animal testing for the EU Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Regulation. Details about these efforts can be found here.
Toxic Substances Control Act (US)
In the US, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requires any company that plans to manufacture an industrial chemical to submit a pre-manufacture notice (PMN) to the EPA before commercialisation. Submitters are required to include any existing toxicity data but are not required to generate new data for a PMN. Science Consortium member PETA US and other stakeholders provided input on the 2016 Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, an amendment to TSCA requiring the EPA to reduce and replace the use of animals in testing whenever possible.
In 2021, the Science Consortium, the EPA, and others partnered to present two posters on assessing the toxicity of chemicals that fall in the EPA surfactant category or the poorly soluble low toxicity (PSLT) polymer category, relying heavily on read-across and in chemico and in vitro testing. The corresponding publications are in press in Chemical Research in Toxicology.
High Production Volume Challenge Program (US)
Science Consortium member PETA US campaigned successfully for guidance on reducing animal use to be implemented into the EPA’s High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge Program. Starting in 1998 and throughout the programme’s 12-year duration, PETA US scientists reviewed and commented on hundreds of test plans – every one in which testing on vertebrate animals was proposed – in order to ensure compliance with guidelines on reducing animal use. Building on this work, scientists from PETA US published a retrospective analysis of animal use in the HPV chemical-testing programme, concluding that the application of read-across was the single most effective means of reducing animal testing.
Draft Chemicals (Management and Safety) Rules, 20XX (India)
The Indian Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers is in the process of finalising its draft Chemicals (Management and Safety) Rules, 20XX, which, once enforced, will regulate chemicals imported and manufactured above 1 tonne in India. In 2020, Science Consortium member PETA India submitted comments and participated in the stakeholder consultation meeting to recommend the use of reliable and relevant non-animal testing approaches, which were subsequently accepted in the draft Rules. PETA India continues to work closely with the government to ensure that additional opportunities for replacing tests on animals are incorporated into the Rules.