Le Monde, 1 September, 2009

54 million animals could fall to REACH

Published on 1 September 2009 at 12:32
Le Monde, 1 September, 2009

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“To protect Europeans from the effects of chemicals, will it really be necessary to sacrifice 54 million laboratory animals over the next decade rather than the 2.5 million originally estimated?” wondersLe Monde. The French daily reports that, according to two scientists, Europe is liable to have a hard time implementing REACH (2006 EU regulation on “Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals”). This EU legislation requires the chemical industry to prove that products put on the market before 1981 are not hazardous to our health or the environment.

In an article published in the scientific journal Nature, toxicologist Thomas Hartung and chemist Costanza Rovida warn that “toxicologists do not have the appropriate tools – whether high-throughput methods or acceptable alternatives to animal testing – to meet these expectations.” The chemical industry has already “pre-registered” 140,000 substances for analysis.

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