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Background
Registration Evaluation Authorisation of
Chemicals (REACH) The current system of risk assessment of chemicals
is complex, very resource-intensive and has been working extremely
slowly. In 1981, of the 100,106 chemicals on the market, only
1% was tested on hazardous properties, a situation which has not
changed substantially since then (see EU White Paper: Strategy for
a future Chemicals Policy, 2001). Because of this a major regulatory
endeavor has been initiated, the REACH legislation aiming to greatly
speed up this process. However, when traditional animal tests are
used progress of REACH will be seriously hampered by: Ethics:
resistance to the excessive use of animals. Costs:
particular those linked to labor intensive animal testing Capacity:
lack of capacity to carry out these tests. Speed:
the use of the same traditional methods will not allow major advances
in speed of the process to be made.
These obstacles necessitate the serious
consideration of alternative, non-animal (in silico and in vitro)
testing strategies.
Priority areas for reduction and replacement
of animal testing
Reproductive toxicity testing alone will
be the major consumer of animals (more than 60% of all). Therefore,
it is the prime area within REACH in which alternative methods
can lead to a vast reduction of animal experimentation. ChemScreen
will focus on alternative methods to test for reproductive toxicity.
To complete the screening
system the current program will concentrate on the following
tasks:
- Establish in silico prescreening
and toxicity prediction methods prioritizing in vitro toxicity
testing (WP1, leading partner; DTU)
- Establish a database and an in silico
prescreen to identify potential reproductive toxicants (WP2,
FhG)
- Establishment of sensitive parameters
and a medium throughput ‘minimal essential’ in vitro assay
panel (WP3, RIVM)
- Establish a high throughput mechanistic
pathway screen, ReproScreen HTP, for reproductive toxicants
(WP4, EKUT)
- Integrative methods to predict in vivo
reprotoxicity allowing informed decisions on prioritization
for eventual further testing (WP5, TNO)
- Integration into one user-friendly
tool (WP6, P&GEN)
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