Health Effects Institute Confirms No Animal Tests Following Talks With PETA

The Health Effects Institute, which studies the effects of air pollution and is largely funded by the global automotive industry and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, confirmed to PETA that it has no plans to fund experiments on animals for the foreseeable future. The decision comes after PETA first contacted the institute in 2023, urging it to switch to state-of-the-art, animal-free, and human-relevant research methods. This shift in gears is a welcome change from decades of air pollution experiments on thousands of animals around the world—including dogs, monkeys, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, rats, and mice—the institute bankrolled since its inception in 1980.