The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on May 8, 2024, that, in collaboration with the PETA Science Consortium International (PSCI), the Institute for In Vitro Sciences (IIVS), and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR), on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, it will hold a webinar on the use of new approach methodologies (NAM).  The webinar, “Advancing Eye Irritation Assessment with Non-Animal Methods for Industrial Chemicals and Agrochemicals: Progress at the US EPA,” is the fourth webinar in a series hosted in collaboration with PSCI, IIVS, and CDPR on the use of NAMs. The presenters for the webinar are:

• Lindsay O’Dell, EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP): O’Dell will present on an OPP collaboration with the National Toxicology Program (NTP) Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM) and PSCI. The project evaluated the performance of two proposed test methods for assessing the eye irritation hazards of pesticide formulations. The defined approaches and the results of the retrospective testing from 29 pesticide formulations were published and peer-reviewed in Cutaneous and Ocular Toxicology; and
• Renee Beardslee, Ph.D., EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT): Beardslee will speak about the EPA New Chemicals Program’s decision framework for identifying eye irritation or corrosion hazards for new chemicals reviewed under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The framework — also developed in collaboration with NICEATM, PSCI, and others — provides a standard approach for the EPA New Chemicals Program to use leading to improved consistency across final risk assessments as well as improved transparency. EPA notes that this supports its mandate under TSCA to promote the development and implementation of alternative test methods and strategies that can provide information on chemical hazards without animal testing.