The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a detailed review of major environmental statutes that summarizes which EPA laws or regulations require vertebrate animal testing, such as laboratory testing done on rats, mice, or rabbits. The report, available at https://www.epa.gov/chemical-research/epa-new-approach-methods-work-plan-reducing-use-vertebrate-animals-chemical, concludes that many statutes and regulations guiding EPA’s authority are broadly written and do not preclude the use of scientific information from NAMs, which are defined as any technology, methodology, approach, or combination that can provide information on chemical hazard and risk assessment to avoid the use of animal testing.

This report is a deliverable in EPA’s NAMs Work Plan, which was originally released in June 2020 and updated in November 2021. The Work Plan outlines the Agency’s strategies and objectives for increasing the rigor and sophistication of Agency assessments while reducing the reliance on vertebrate animals to test chemicals in regulatory, compliance, enforcement, and research activities through the use of NAMs. The assessments will remain fully protective of human health and the environment. The first objective in the Work Plan was to evaluate regulatory flexibility for accommodating NAMs, and the report accomplishes that objective.