AR-News: Alliance for responsible science

Tue Apr 20 23:49:36 EDT 2004

ALLIANCE FOR RESPONSIBLE SCIENCE

  The European Commission project, REACH - Regulation Evaluation 
Authorisation of Chemicals - proposes that, by 2020, 100,000 chemicals are 
to be tested, using 92 million rodents. If this goes ahead, in addition to 
the laboratory animal carnage, successive generations of humans, domestic 
animals and the environment will be irreversibly poisoned for decades to 
come. The chemical industry is opposing this plan as it will have to pay for 
it and many chemicals will be rejected by these animal tests : none of which 
have any relevance to human welfare.
  Dr Claude Resiss, President of Doctors and Lawyers for Responsible 
Medicine, has proposed a Scientific Toxicology Programme.
  “This programme provides a rigorous and reliable assessment of the adverse 
effects a given chemical may have on human cells and tissues. The methods 
provide toxic risk assessment valid for humans, including acute, short- term 
and chronic, long-term toxicities. The results can be replicated at will, 
and are reproducible from lab to lab. This should satisfy parties interested 
in the protection of human health. The methods involved are very fast. They 
can provide definitive results within hours, days at most, valid for humans, 
while animal experimentation lasts for months and years and yield results 
valid only for animals.
    The methods can be robotized, hence facilitating the screening of 
hundreds of thousands of chemicals simultaneously, at varied doses on a 
variety of cell types (liver, kidney, neuronal). Automatic data collection, 
processing and display of the results”and the interpretation can be 
provided. Once the test laboratory has been equipped, the cost of the tests 
is a fraction of that of animal experimentation. These features should 
satisfy industrial parties, who would spend less, get the results fast, 
improve their public image and avoid legal actions.
Environmentalists would get the test results fast enough for taking action 
before irreversible damage was done to the environment.  ...  Animal 
experimentation, handled cleverly, permits almost any chemical, even the 
most dangerous, to be declared safe. When it comes to human health, animal 
testing is a mere mockery.
  Will we go on tolerating dangerous products infiltrate our homes and our 
food just because they were declared safe by these flawed tests?
  DLRM and its companion organisations within the Alliance For Responsible 
Science believe the only way to overcome this blockade which the EC/lndustry 
propose, is by reliable toxicity assessment valid for humans. It can be 
demonstrated that such a scientific toxicology programme would identify, 
undisputedly, in a matter of hours, chemical substances dangerous to humans. 
We have decided that action is urgently needed without delay - NOW. But this 
can only be achieved with your support!
   Such a programme could be applied to three groups of chemicals: (i) a 
list of drugs which had been withdrawn because of lethal side-effects in 
patients, despite the fact they, had been tested extensively on animals; 
(ii) a list of pesticides commonly present in our food and environment; and 
(iii) a list of food additives (preservatives, colourings and other 
‘E-numbers’).  To this end we would set up a facility equipped with the 
material required for our tests. We are launching a campaign to raise the 
necessary funds for setting up this facility.
   We could test a limited number of chemicals with £100,000. With 
£1.000,000 we could set up a lab for fully testing hundreds of chemicals per 
week. We will also approach NGOs (environmental, animal welfare etc.) and 
sponsors. But we need your help, whatever the amount, as a special and 
dedicated encouragement.”   Dr Reiss.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS PROJECT CANNOT BE OVER-EMPHASISED.
   On grounds of animal, human and planetary rights, health and welfare no 
other single projects has approached the significance of the STP. Totally 
irrelevant toxicology tests on rodents take months or years : the STP takes 
hours or, at most, days.
    The vivisection industry - vivisectors, equipment makers, animal 
breeders etc - will oppose these proposals vigorously. If they and the EC 
can drag out the issue until June 2004 the REACH project will be established 
without using the STP.
Pat Rattigan  BAVA
DONATIONS, of whatever size, are needed now.
Cheques, payable to STP Fund, c/o DLRM  PO Box 302 London N8 9HD
further details at
                                                           www.dlrm.org

Animal experiments have:
a 63% failure rate when detecting human carcinogens
a 75-95% failure rate for detecting drug side effects
a 70% failure rate for detecting drugs which cause birth defects
Success rates lower than those achieved by uneducated guesswork.

This is not science!!

Recommended website: The Absurdity of vivisection
http://vivisection-absurd.org.uk/

Information on animal research available free by EMail from 
vivisectionkills at hotmail.com

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the wild, cruel beast is not behind the bars of the cage. he is in front of it - axel munthe

"Never doubt that a small group of dedicated citizens can change the world. 
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."      Margaret Mead
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