Once upon a time, Congress came up with the good idea (strange, but true) to create an interagency committee to encourage and validate modern, animal-friendly testing methods for use by governmental agencies. Unfortunately, the committee, known by its acronym ICCVAM, or the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods, has been doing just the opposite—blocking scientifically sound and humane non-animal testing methods. For example, ICCVAM has done the following:

• Actively campaigned to prohibit the U.S. from adopting the Globally Harmonized System of labeling, which would allow the use of non-animal methods to assess skin irritation
• Insisted on the use of rabbits for testing chemical effects on eyes
• Failed to review any of the non-animal methods used by the Environmental Protection Agency for its Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program
• Actively excluded experts in non-animal testing methods from its advisory committee

The ickiest thing about ICCVAM is its leader, Dr. William Stokes, who has pushed all of this unscientific and animal-unfriendly tomfoolery under his watch.

PETA is calling on Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the agency that oversees ICCVAM, to fire Dr. Stokes and replace him with someone who will actually VAM (validate alternative methods). You can help by e-mailing Dr. Birnbaum and seconding our concern.

Written by Philip Douglas

blogs.mianinewtimes / CC

Well, it's taken 10 years of pressure and an exposé in The Washington Post based on a PETA report to get there, but it looks like the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) might just finally start to do its job.

ICCVAM recently signed an international agreement with Europe, Canada, and Japan stating that these countries will work together on the creation of non-animal testing methods. To do this, they will begin sharing scientific recommendations on alternative toxicity testing methods.

It's about time.

Although ICCVAM was created by Congress specifically to implement modern, reliable, non-animal chemical-testing methods, it has instead proved to be a major obstacle to its very mission. In the 11 years since its inception, ICCVAM has validated just one non-animal test method that originated in the U.S. By contrast, the European Union's counterpart agency has validated a dozen.

ICCVAM still needs a major overhaul but hopefully, this new agreement will get the wheels turning worldwide and help speed up the process of developing and implementing new non-animal testing methods.

Written by Shawna Flavell