Chapter 2.1 - Alternative Methods in Toxicity Testing in the UK

Abstract

The challenge of the need for change was thrown down when Russell and Burch proposed the Three Rs in 1959, and, among others, Smyth responded by focusing on the concept of alternatives. The Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (FRAME), formed in 1969 to seek the replacement of animal tests by better methods, played a major role, through its journal, ATLA (Alternatives to Laboratory Animals), its Toxicity Committee, its Research Programme, including the FRAME Alternatives Laboratory at the University of Nottingham, and its good relations with academia, government, industry and scientists in many parts of the world. FRAME played a pivotal role in the drafting and passage of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, which had a sound Three Rs basis, received the first government grant specifically for alternatives research, and also provided the first Head of the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM). The National Centre for the Three Rs (NC3Rs), set up in 2004, rapidly established effective collaborations with science and industry, and its flagship initiative, CRACK IT, focuses on the development of new technologies to meet challenges put forward by its sponsors. Many other individuals and organisations have made major contributions to the promotion of the Three Rs, and, in particular, the Central Toxicology Laboratory, originally at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), and Unilever Research. Julia Fentem, now at Unilever, has had a notably unique career, including important periods at the University of Nottingham, FRAME and ECVAM.