The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Meet on alternatives to use of animals in research

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 28, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Meet on alternatives to use of animals in research

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: A three-day congress on "Alternatives to the use of animals in research, testing and education" will begin in the city on Monday.

Briefing reporters about the conference, S. Thanikachalam, Chairman and Director, Cardiac Care Centre, SRMC, said on Saturday the congress would bring to India the finest of scientific discoveries in `in vitro' technology and environment-friendly alternatives used in teaching life sciences. Scientists from various universities and institutes across the world engaged in alternatives research and validation would enable the participants to see and to have an hands-on experience in several in-vitro methods currently used in basic bio-medical research, regulatory testing and life sciences education.

Thomas Hartung, Head, European Commission, Joint Research Centre and European Centre for Validation of Alternative Methods, said many countries in Europe started using alternatives to animals nearly 20 years ago. Similarly in 2003, a ban was imposed on testing cosmetics on animals in Europe, he said. Annually 5,000 cosmetics products were introduced in Europe, he said.

Prof. Hartung said: "The field of alternatives is currently driven by the expectations from both cosmetics and chemical policies. The 7th amendment to the cosmetics directive published in 2003 foresees to phase out animal experiments completely by 2013," he said. A few cosmetic manufacturers such as L'Oreal, France, Invitro ADMET Laboratories, USA and SkinEthic, France would train delegates in the finest of their in-vitro technologies. The programme is being organised jointly by International Centre for Alternatives in Research and Education (I-CARE), Sri Ramachandran University and International Institute for Biotechnology and Toxicolory, Chennai.

For more information about the congress contact: Shiranee Pereira on 98404-82829.

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