« A working team is developing a toxicity testing in the 21st century/adverse outcome pathways (TT21C/AOP) roadmap for China.
It will focus on alternative testing methods, such as the AOP framework. This is a new approach to toxicology that tries to determine, through research with human cells, what causes an adverse effect on the body when exposed to a particular substance. It is a fast developing technology in the EU and US.
Dr Carl Westmoreland, director of science and technology at Unilever’s Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre, tells Chemical Watch the plan is aligned with the 2007 US National Research Council (NRC) Report, « Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A vision and a strategy ».
The overall objective of this strategy is to:
-provide broad characterisation of chemicals and their mixtures, toxicity end points or outcomes and life stages
-make testing faster and cheaper
-significantly reduce animal testing
-develop a more robust scientific basis for assessing the health effects of environmental agents by incorporating data on mode of action and information on tissue doses and human exposure.