Letter from FRAMEBy Caren Broadhead, Ph.D. On 17 June 1996, the Co-op (a chain of retail outlets) launched a national campaign in collaboration with FRAME to focus consumer, industry and political attention on what is perceived to be a lack of progress toward the proposed ban on animal testing of cosmetics ingredients, required by the Sixth Amendment (Directive 93/35/EEC) to the European Union (EU) Cosmetics Directive (Directive 76/68/EEC). This initiative was prompted by the probability that the latest EU report (Development, Validation and Legal Acceptance of Alternative Methods to Animal Experiments in the Field of Cosmetics, Annual Report 1995, European Commission, Brussels) on progress toward implementing the ban will indicate problems due to delays in developing and validating acceptable alternative tests. It is likely that, in all but a few areas of testing, further information will be needed before the ban can be fully imposed. The results of a questionnaire revealed that most consumers are surprised and annoyed that animal testing of cosmetics continues. The Co-op has decided to implement a number of measures, designed to accelerate the validation of new alternatives. These include an in-stores promotion which will generate at least L70,000 for FRAME. Secondly, the company is urging its suppliers who are not already FRAME supporters, to join and lend their support. Thirdly, the Co-op is lobbying the Government to increase its specific funding for this area of research, and to do more to help with the development and validation of alternatives, both in the U.K. and in Europe. The money that the Co-op will give to FRAME will be used to establish a computerized data bank on methods for cosmetics testing, with the prime objective of helping to reduce the delay in validation and regulatory acceptance of alternatives. The delay is partly due to a lack of agreement on methods, and the lack of freely-available in vivo data from tests conducted in the past, against which the performance of new alternative assays can be measured. It is hoped that these problems can be alleviated by providing a means by which industrial and other information can be shared and analyzed by FRAME. FRAME is to take complete responsibility for the management of the databank, and will maintain confidentiality as appropriate. The databank is to be developed in stages, the first of which will be to consider alternative methods and procedures used in-house by industry, in order to explore ways in which such approaches can be modified to make them applicable to a wider range of chemicals and formulations. In this way, it is intended to provide information which will be useful in modifying the tests, so that they have a greater chance of achieving regulatory acceptance following validation. The second phase of the project will involve collecting and analyzing the results of animal/human testing and sharing the resulting information. It is hoped that, eventually, the results of these analyses will be published. A questionnaire is being prepared for distribution to industry to launch the first stage of the project. Dr. Broadhead is Scientific Officer at FRAME. | 
