Scientific
Toxicity Assessment
Summary
of the contribution to REACH presented by Pro Anima in co-operation
with the board of the Alliance for Responsible Science (AFRS)
Europeans live
surrounded by over 100,000 chemicals, 98% of which have never
been tested for their effects on our health or the environment.
The European Commission is right in deciding that these products
must be assessed.
However DLRM
challenges the EC's projected use of traditional toxicology
methods in such assessments, since these would rely on animal-based
tests, which have been conclusively proved to be unreliable
for human medical research.
Examination of
recent health data statistics prove that we are inadvertently
exposed, inside and outside our homes, to a full-blown chemical
war which claims hundreds of thousands of innocent victims
yearly in the EU. The board of AFRS, in which DLRM participates,
has worked out a Science Based Toxicology programme (SBT)
for reliable toxic risk assessment which is valid for humans
and enables us to forecast long term effects.
The methods proposed
are derived from those of modern biology (DNA,chips, 'reporter'
genes etc). They are fast, allowing high throughput of screening
of chemicals, can be easily robotized, and are cost-effective
compared with traditional toxicology.
DLRM is campaigning
for the adoption of this programme by the EC and EU. We believe
it could halve the cancer mortality rate over the next five
years, and would address the wide variety of side effects
which have been tested by invalid methods.
3-Step
Plan
DLRM has put forward a 3-step plan to eliminate the use of
animals altogether, and instead, switch over to tried and
trusted scientific methods based on molecular biology. These
non-animal methods are also faster and far more reliable than
animal tests.
This joint initiative by DLRM and Pro Anima would appear
to be just what the EU needs right now, for the following
reason: Ten years ago in 1991, having recognised the danger
to public health of chemical pesticides, the EC took the step
of planning to assess the toxic effects of these pesticides
by the year 2003 (EC directive 1991/414). To-date (October,
2001), only about 10% of these pesticides have actually been
tested. Realising that it will not meet the deadline of 2003,
the European Parliament is likely to push for a postponement
until 2008.
What this means is:
- The public will continue to be exposed to the unknown
toxic effect of pesticide chemicals for at least another
decade;
- EU regulatory authorities will continue to formulate public
health policies on the basis of unreliable animal toxicity
data;
- The EU will continue to ignore the much faster and far
more scientific methods already available for assessing
human toxic risk assessment.
What DLRM and Pro Anima intend to do:
- Expose this public health scandal as widely as possible
(hence our press conference);
- Supply scientific information to all 500 of the MEP's,
which will explain why animal tests do not, and cannot,
yield useful information regarding humans;
- Pursue all other legally legitimate options which will
protect public health.
For more information, contact the DLRM Office.
Doctors and Lawyers for Responsible Medicine, November
2001. |
