Another significant step forward has been made in the effort to reduce animal use in toxicology testing.
PETA scientists and their collaborators have published new data on an advanced non-animal inhalation test that uses human lung cells instead of animals.
The research is already influencing regulatory science. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently used data from the publication to develop a new approach for assessing the potential of certain chemicals to cause lung irritation, considering the method more relevant to human biology than traditional animal tests.
Before pharmaceuticals, pesticides and many other products can be sold, regulatory agencies require testing to evaluate their potential effects on human health and the environment. Millions of animals are used in toxicity testing each year, and many of the methods still in use were developed decades ago.
In traditional inhalation studies, animals—most commonly rats—may be restrained in narrow tubes and forced to breathe chemical substances before being killed for examination. Critics of these tests argue that they do not always reliably predict how chemicals will affect people because the biology of human and rat lungs differs.
That limitation has increased demand for testing methods based more directly on human biology.
Over several years, PETA scientists and their collaborators have helped advance a non-animal approach designed to measure how chemicals affect the human respiratory system.
The method uses laboratory-grown tissue made from human cells that closely mimics the lining of the upper airway. The tissue contains mucus-producing cells as well as tiny hair-like struct