EPA Chief Pledges To Severely Cut Back On Animal Testing Of Chemicals

"The Environmental Protection Agency says it will aggressively reduce the use of animals in toxicity testing, with a goal of eliminating all routine safety tests on mammals by 2035."

"Chemicals such as pesticides typically get tested for safety on animals like mice and rats. Researchers have long been trying to instead increase the use of alternative safety tests that rely on lab-grown cells or computer modeling. The EPA's administer, Andrew Wheeler, has now set some specific deadlines to try to speed up that transition."

"In a signed memo made public Tuesday, he's directed the agency to reduce all requests for, and funding of, studies with live mammals by 30 percent by 2025. He says he wants the agency to essentially eliminate all mammal study requests and funding by 2035, with the use of live mammals only allowed after that with special permission."

"'I really do think that with the lead time that we have in this — 16 years before we completely eliminate animal testing — that we have enough time to come up with alternatives,' says Wheeler."

"He notes that he wrote an op-ed for his college newspaper on the need to reduce animal testing back in 1987."

"'I didn't think we were that far away from banning animal testing then,' Wheeler says. 'Part of why I'm doing this today is because it's been 30 years and we haven't made enough progress.'"