For years there was no focus within the U.S. federal
government for alternatives to animal toxicity testing.
Questions coming to regulatory agencies fell upon individuals
to address in the best way they could. Given this void,
the ad hoc Interagency Regulatory Alternatives Group was
founded by staff in a number of federal agencies in the
late 1980s to coalesce efforts in the field. The group
sponsored two international workshops on eye irritation,
the first making proposals for change in the current test
method in rabbits, the second reviewing available data
on in vitro alternatives. The result has been that the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) is considering revision of the in vivo eye
irritation test guideline to incorporate a number of
the workshop deliberations. However, movement of the in
vitro eye irritation alternatives has been disappointing;
attempts to determine their practical testing significance
have thus far been unrewarding.
Laser Light-Based Opacitometer ‘Peira LLBO 180’: A new and validated opacitometer for use in the Bovine Corneal Opacity and Permeability (BCOP) eye irritation test method