OECD published two new Test Guidelines for Chemicals

Created on:2021-09-27 11:58

On 14 June 2021, the OECD published a new Guideline on Defined Approaches for Skin Sensitisation (OECD GL No. 497). This is a new type of OECD Guideline that uses several types of combined information to provide chemical safety information and can replace the need for animal test data. The project to develop this new Guideline started in 2017 and was led by the United States, the European Commission Joint Research Centre and Health Canada, supported by a group of nominated experts. The Defined Approaches (DAs) were validated using an extensively curated large set of human and mouse reference data on skin sensitisation. A supporting document providing details on the data curation and performance characteristics of the DAs on skin sensitisation will be published soon in the OECD Series on Testing and Assessment.

 

The OECD published Test Guideline No. 249: Fish Cell Line Acute Toxicity: The RTgill-W1 cell line assay on 14 June 2021.

This is another significant step in the implementation of the 3Rs-principles (Reduction, Replacement, Refinement), the guiding principles for more ethical use of animals in testing.

The project to develop this test guideline was led by Switzerland and Norway and resulted in a method that identifies chemicals that are toxic to fish by testing cell cultures instead of whole animals.

 

https://www.oecd.org/chemicalsafety/testing/oecdguidelinesforthetestingofchemicals.htm

 

Keywords: Test for Chemicals, 3Rs-principles (Reduction, Replacement, Refinement)