Alternative Toxicity Test Methods

The development of alternative methods to living animals, originally in the area of toxicity testing for chemical safety assessment, and more recently in biomedical research, has a rich history going back to the 1950s. In the early days, the drivers for change were mostly based on animal welfare concerns, but the evidence has increasingly pointed to the scientific and practical limitations of reliance on traditional animal methods. As toxicology transitioned into the 21st century, the need to assess an ever increasing range of chemicals, products and exposure scenarios has been accompanied by a plethora of new tools and assessment approaches. This rapid pace of change, both in terms of societal expectations for safety assessment science and the need to evaluate and intelligently apply the emerging technologies, continues to present challenges, as well as opportunities. This chapter highlights a number of lessons learned from a historical review of the field, and reflects on how far we have come since the seminal work of Russell and Burch in 1959.