L'Oreal funding new research
The cosmetics giant L'Oreal has given $1.2million to the US Environmental Protection Agency to fund a research collaboration into the possibility of expanding the use of the EPA's toxicity testing system ToxCast. Were such an expansion found to be feasible, the testing of chemicals for potential adverse health effects would not need to involve the use of animals.
"Because of the high costs and length of time it takes for animal testing, not all the chemicals in use have been thoroughly evaluated for potential toxicity. ToxCast is able to rapidly screen thousands of chemicals in hundreds of tests and provide results that are relevant to various types of toxicity." said David Dix, Acting Head of the EPA's National Centre for Computational Toxicology.
Also commenting, Executive Vice-President L'Oreal Research & Innovation Laurent Attal said "For more than 30 years, we have invested in Predictive Evaluation for Safety, in other words, animal-free toxicology. The ToxCast program from EPA could enrich our testing platforms and help us to predict earlier the safety of substances for our products."
Veterinary practices are being urged to help owners safely dispose of any unused and expired pet medicines - not just antibiotics - during November's Animal Medicines Amnesty. 
