PETA SUES EPA OVER CONTROVERSIAL ANIMAL TEST
For Immediate Release:
February 13, 2001
Contact:
Jessica Sandler – 757-622-7382
PETA filed a petition for review today, in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final guideline for conducting the Developmental Neurotoxicity Test (DNT). The test is intended to detect a substance’s effect on the developing central nervous system of rodents, and its results have been widely criticized within the scientific community as irrelevant to human infants and children.
The test-which uses 2,000 animals per substance-has never been validated: It has never undergone the scientific review necessary to ensure that it actually detects the effect it is intended to measure. It therefore condemns thousands of animals to a painful death each time it is conducted, and its results are meaningless. Additionally, infants and children are jeopardized by the EPA’s reliance on this non-validated methodology in making regulatory decisions about pesticides and toxic substances.
The EPA published the final test guideline in the last days of the Clinton administration. Its adoption was a blatant violation of the notice and comment provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act. The EPA promulgated the regulation as a final rule without allowing for public notice and comment, because “The agency believes that providing notice and an opportunity to comment is unnecessary.”
