FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday 12 February 2002

CONTACT:
Jeanne Stuart McVey, Communications Liaison
tel: 202-686-2210, ext. 316; jeannem@pcrm.org

Doctors Initiate Legal Challenge to Controversial Testing Program
EPA Given 60-Day Notice of Intent to Sue

Washington, D.C.—On 13 February, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) will file notice of intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The lawsuit stems from the EPA's failure to comply with the Toxic Substance Control Act's (TSCA) mandatory rulemaking procedures in implementing the High Production Volume Challenge Program (HPV program). The HPV program is a massive chemical testing program involving screening-level animal toxicity tests on 2,800 industrial chemicals produced or imported in the United States in amounts exceeding 1 million pounds per year.

"Before the EPA can develop test data, it must justify the need for testing and give the public an opportunity to participate in the process in a meaningful way," says Mindy Kursban, general counsel for PCRM. "The EPA cannot subvert TSCA's statutory structure for administrative convenience. This is especially important when enormous animal cruelty and a huge waste of taxpayer dollars are at stake."

"The voluntary nature of the HPV program is leading to proposal after proposal of duplicative and meaningless animal tests that will do nothing to protect the public or the environment," states PCRM staff scientist Nicole Cardello, M.H.S.

PCRM is joined by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the American Anti-Vivisection Society, and Alternatives Research Development Foundation in this legal challenge.

For a copy of the notice of intent to sue addressed to EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman, please contact Jeanne Stuart McVey at 202-686-2210 ext. 316, or jeannem@pcrm.org.

Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit organization that promotes preventive medicine and higher standards in research.

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