{"id":443,"date":"2005-04-25T18:51:53","date_gmt":"2013-01-19T17:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antidote-europe.org\/?p=443"},"modified":"2013-02-10T14:25:33","modified_gmt":"2013-02-10T13:25:33","slug":"reliable-toxicity-assessment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antidote-europe.eu\/en\/reliable-toxicity-assessment\/","title":{"rendered":"Europeans demand a reliable assessment of chemical\u2019s toxicity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Supported by several associations working in different fields in different fields in different countries, Antidote Europe wrote to the Presidents of European Commission and Parliament informing them of the existence of the Scientific Toxicology Programme and asking for toxicological tests on animals to be banned in the\u00a0REACH\u00a0project.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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With reference to the\u00a0REACH\u00a0project, several organizations have written to the European Commission and Parliament (Mr Jose Manuel Barroso and Josep Borrell Fontelles) to demand that animal experimentation is abandoned in favour of reliable methods for assessing toxicity of chemicals.<\/p>\n

Antidote Europe, coordinator of this action, has been created by researchers with a long experience in public research institutions and proposes a Scientific Toxicology Program (STP) based on human cells culture, genomics (toxicogenomics) and\u00a0DNA\u00a0chips. The reliability of the\u00a0STP\u00a0has been proven with laboratory tests.<\/p>\n

STP\u00a0presents advantages for all interested parties : rapidity (30 000 chemicals could be tested within a year instead of ten years as evoked by the EC if animals were to be used), low cost (100 times less than with animals), no animals sacrificed, encouragement of new technologies in Europe (genomics and\u00a0DNA\u00a0chips are being used in many recent projects in the\u00a0USA) and, most important, reliable toxicity assessment for humans.<\/p>\n

Several organizations, in different European countries, devoided to different subjects, have signed the same letter, proving that millions of European citizens feel concern and hope that European institutions will really adopt rules to protect human health. It is now demonstrated that chemical pollution is responsible for the exponential rise in cancer, allergies, neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer or Parkinson, for low fertility.<\/p>\n

Therefore, it is urgent to adopt\u00a0REACH\u00a0but on the condition that reliable methods for toxicity assessment are implemented. If we still use animal experimentation, which absolves many dangerous substances,\u00a0REACH\u2019s consequences could be opposite to its aim, since substances could be authorized (non toxic for animals) in spite of being toxic for us.<\/p>\n

Signatories:<\/p>\n