EU publishes long-awaited roadmap to phase out animal testing in chemical safety assessment
- Press release
European Coalition to End Animal Experiments (ECEAE), Cruelty Free Europe, Eurogroup for Animals, Humane World for Animals and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) welcome the release of the European Commission’s long‑awaited roadmap to phase out animal testing in chemical safety assessments, signalling an end to nearly half a million invasive procedures inflicted on sensitive and sentient fish, rabbits, rats, and other animals each year.
The publication of the roadmap is both a scientific milestone and a testament to stakeholder collaboration and “people power”, heeding the demands of over 1.2 million citizens for innovative, accurate, humane science. The roadmap demonstrates the EU’s commitment to phase out animal testing in safety assessments and recognises that non-animal approaches can enhance the protection of human health, the environment and all animals.
Across the EU, approximately 500,000 procedures using animals are conducted annually to comply with EU legislative requirements for chemical safety assessments.
Animals may be used in tests in which they are force-fed toxic chemicals daily for months at a time, causing pain, swelling, bleeding, organ failure, and death. In developmental toxicity tests, experimenters force-feed chemicals to pregnant animals to see whether the substances will cause their offspring to develop abnormalities or die, and in a single reproductive toxicity test, up to 2,500 animals may be used to test just one chemical.
The focus must now swiftly turn from ambition to delivery. With key legislation under the political spotlight, including REACH, it is vital that ECHA, EMA, EFSA, Commission services, and Member States implement the roadmap consistently and transparently, in line with the ECI’s objectives.
This roadmap follows the successful ECI, Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics, spearheaded by the five NGOs.