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Environmental agency's decision to end most animal testing is a win for
taxpayers | Opinion

   Justin Goodman Guest columnist
   Published 2:33 PM EDT Oct 7, 2019

   In early September, I sat alongside U.S. Environmental Protection
   Agency  Administrator Andrew Wheeler as he announced a bold plan to
   fully phase-out his agency’s animal testing of mammals by 2035, with a
   significant drawdown by 2025.

   It’s the first time in history that a federal agency has put a hard
   deadline on the wasteful and cruel practice opposed by a supermajority
   of Americans, and it’s long overdue.

   As White Coat Waste Project exposed last year using the Freedom of
   Information Act, the EPA has historically used 20,000 bunnies, mice and
   other animals each year in ineffective tests that consume up to half of
   some EPA divisions’ taxpayer-funded budgets.

A bipartisan push

   [073e73fe-bc7b-45f9-97cc-efa83ce36e28-Justin_Goodman.jpg?width=1080&qua
   lity=50]
   Justin Goodman
   Submitted

   In a subsequent letter referencing WCW’s investigation, Memphis-area
   Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen and bipartisan colleagues wrote to
   Andrew Wheeler, “Recently-published experiments by EPA…show that lab
   animals were fed lard and coconut oil, then forced to breathe diesel
   exhaust, ozone, and smog, electrocuted, and ultimately killed. These
   tests likely cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year, and their
   relevance to humans, as EPA has often acknowledged, is dubious at
   best.”

   The EPA’s plan to end animal testing is sound policy informed by sound
   science.

   Over a decade ago the National Academies of Sciences recommended that
   the EPA transition from unreliable and slow animal tests to modern
   alternatives that are more effective, cost efficient and humane. And in
   2016, National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins told
   Congress that he believed animal testing for chemicals and drugs would
   be largely replaced with alternatives by 2026. This is right in line
   with the EPA’s plan.

A line in the sand

   The difference now is that the EPA is drawing a line in the sand and
   taking concrete steps to make this a reality.

   On top of the science, the potential taxpayer savings from switching to
   alternatives to outdated animal tests are enormous. For instance, a
   2016 study by the American Cleaning Institute—which represents the $30
   billion cleaning products industry—reported savings of $70 million and
   150,000 animals by avoiding animal tests in the evaluation of just 261
   chemicals.  The EPA’s backlog of chemicals needing to be screened is in
   the thousands, translating into billions of tax dollars saved and
   millions of animals spared abuse by scrapping animal tests.  The EPA
   proposal will also eliminate unnecessary and burdensome animal testing
   requirements for industry.

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   The effort to get here has been a bipartisan success story, with
   lawmakers like Cohen and Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of
   Tennessee taking action in recent years to curb EPA animal tests for
   economic, ethical and efficacy reasons.  And earlier this year, WCW
   united bipartisan lawmakers to pass legislation that was signed into
   law by President Donald Trump urging the EPA to cut its in-house animal
   testing. Taxpayers clearly want to see this happen too: Polling shows
   that 79% of Republicans and 68% of Democrats support cuts to EPA’s
   animal testing.

   The EPA’s decision to eliminate wasteful and cruel animal testing is an
   historic win for animals, taxpayers, and the environment.

   Justin Goodman is the vice president of advocacy and public policy at
   the 2-million-member White Coat Waste Project, a national watchdog
   group that works to expose and stop taxpayer-funded animal experiments.
   Published 2:33 PM EDT Oct 7, 2019

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