REACHing alternatives to animal testing?

One of the most controversial issues raised by the debate on the proposed EU chemicals legislation REACH is the impact it will have on animal tests carried out in European laboratories.

Enterprise Commissioner Günter Verheugen last year said that REACH could mean 3.9 million more tests on live animals. Conservation groups meanwhile say that the new chemicals legislation is needed to encourage the development of alternatives to animal testing. The 2003 proposal itself says that "testing on vertebrate animals for the purposes of this regulation shall be undertaken only as a last resort".

Verheugen has been heavily criticised by conservation groups for making REACH too pro-industry, at the expense of environmental and health concerns. Sources close to the commissioner, however, say that the fate of animals under the new legislation worries him as much as that of big business.

REACH amendments favoured by environmentalists could mean an increase in animal tests, said one Commission official, by introducing tough registration and substitution rules.

"We do not only want to reduce animal testing, but also want to bring an end to it in the long run," said Verheugen. "This is why it is so important to do our utmost to avoid that the new REACH legislation leads to more animal testing, instead of less."

In the short run, however, all observers agree there is no way to avoid some increase in animal tests once REACH comes into force, even if this is not the 3.9 million suggested by Verheugen.

Ninja Reineke of WWF, the conservation group, said that it was a question of balancing the desire for a low number of animal tests against the harm done to animals and people by dangerous chemicals on the market today.

"REACH will in the long run encourage the development of alternatives to animal testing for industrial chemicals," said Reineke. "And these could then be used in other applications."

Alternatives currently in use or being developed include in vitro (test tube) testing, and computer modelling.

Separately from REACH, in 2002 the EU agreed to end animal testing for cosmetics by 2009. From that date, products produced using laboratory animals will be banned, even if no alternative test method exists.

One of the most controversial issues raised by the debate on the proposed EU chemicals legislation REACH is the impact it will have on animal tests carried out in European laboratories.