What are some concerns with the use of animals in toxicity testing?
Animal-based testing—which causes millions of animals to suffer unalleviated pain and death—has questionable value for predicting human health effects. To use the results of tests performed on animals to predict human reactions, scientists and regulators need to assume that the biological and physical processes of other mammals respond to chemicals in ways similar to those of humans. But that assumption is often incorrect, as scientists are beginning to understand. All animals do share aspects of biology very generally; however, the details about how each species absorb, metabolize, and excrete chemicals vary widely. Species differences and the use of very high testing doses lead to difficulties in interpreting animal toxicity testing results in humans. This can lead to more testing, delaying appropriate chemical regulations. Testing on animals is also very costly and time consuming. A series of tests on one chemical costs around $6 million and can take three years to plan, conduct, an
