The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, is accelerating the move away from animal testing by adopting \u201cmodern, gold standard\u201d alternatives. Zeldin says the agency is announcing 13 new option approaches designed to produce faster, more accurate results, and is maintaining its goal of ending animal testing by 2035 despite earlier delays attributed to the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

The EPA also plans to update its \u201cNew Approach Methods\u201d for evaluating chemical impacts under the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, including greater use of human cell models and advanced computer-based methods<\/a>. The agency claims these approaches can identify hazards and exposures more quickly and with results more relevant to people than laboratory animals, and it cites prior use of alternative methods<\/a> in cancer evaluations for certain phthalates that it says spared an estimated 1,600 mice and rats.<\/p>\n

In addition, EPA says it is engaging researchers and stakeholders to propose and expand validated methods that reduce or replace animal use while improving the speed, transparency, and predictability of chemical safety decisions. <\/p>\n