Brussels, 03/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - A newly validated test approach for ecotoxicological effects has been endorsed by the European Commission - an approach which may very well save the lives of tens of thousands of fish every year. The European Union stipulates the need to assess the risks to our environment of all new chemical compounds. The ecotoxicological effects (i.e. the harmful effects on plants and animals, populations, or communities) of such chemicals are determined by performing tests using algae, water fleas (daphnia) and fish. Each chemical tested is classified by the concentration which shows toxicity in the most sensitive of all three species. Up to now, fish have equally shared the test burden with algae and daphnia combined.
Some 1.6 million fish are used for laboratory experiments in Europe every year. According to the Commission, the number used for testing chemicals can be reduced substantially. After collecting test results on all new chemicals since 1981, the European Commission's Joint Research Centre observed that fish are rarely more sensitive than algae and daphnia. Working together with scientists from AstraZeneca Global Safety Health and Environment in the UK, the Commission's researchers have come up with a simple, yet very effective, approach. The approach entails initial testing with algae and daphnia. Fish are only used for testing at the lowest level of concentration where toxic effects are observed in algae and daphnia. If the fish survive at this concentration, no further testing is required. Analysis of the results of such testing during the last 12 months are convincing and predict that more than half the fish currently used for testing can be saved using this new approach. Furthermore, the results have held true for all types of compounds ranging from chemicals for consumer products to pesticides and drugs.
This test approach has now been endorsed as valid by the Scientific Advisory Committee of the EC's Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM), and steps towards its regulatory acceptance are already underway. This represents a new and potentially significant contribution to reducing animal testing in Europe and is significant in the context of forthcoming EU-wide legislation on the testing of chemicals (REACH), explains the Commission in a press release.