WASHINGTON – On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it is moving forward to end mammalian animal testing.
The planned phaseout revives a policy proposed under the first Trump administration to eliminate the practice by 2035. The Biden administration removed formal phaseout deadlines, claiming testing science was not progressing fast enough to achieve the change.
An end to animal testing is a worthy goal. But without a modern, rigorous regulatory framework, the EPA’s plan risks turning pregnant people, children and vulnerable communities into test subjects for the chemical industry.
There are enormous challenges to ensuring public health protections and reliable non-animal testing. But this administration has reduced or eliminated much of that essential science research.
Chemical manufacturers are using the push to end animal tests as cover to fast-track inadequately tested chemicals and keep chemicals on the market that are known to be hazardous. This approach repeats the failures regulating the toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, where profits, not safety, drove decades of exposure.
A gradual end to animal testing without strong safeguards is an uncontrolled experiment on American families. Most chemicals used today were approved with little to no safety data.
Some alternative methods work that lead to limited outcomes like damage to genetic material and skin irritation and sensitization. But critical gaps remain for assessing cancer, reproductive, developmental and immune system risks.
Any transition away from animal tests must rely on credible new research and be paired with strict new rules, rigorous data standards and a regulatory framework built to protect human health, not the chemical industry’s bottom line.
The following is a statement on the planned phaseout from David Andrews, Ph.D., acting chief science officer at the Environmental Working Group.
EWG supports moving away from animal testing, but not at the expense of public health. The responsible course would have been for the EPA to announce increased funding for the essential research needed to develop reliable non-animal tests.
An end to animal tests without viable alternatives effectively turns people into the chemical industry’s test subjects. Without animal tests, the low level of information on chemicals will become a safety vacuum. Too many chemicals have already reached the market with little to no safety data.
New test methods must be at least as protective as the animal studies they replace. Non-animal methods hold promise, but they are not yet reliable for detecting risks like cancer, immune harm, and impacts to reproduction and development.
The PFAS crisis shows what happens when company profits and lax regulations enable widespread use of chemicals without adequate consideration of public health.
Any phaseout of animal tests must be paired with strong, modern safeguards that put people and the environment, not industry convenience, first.
###
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.
