US EPA’s new framework prioritises non-animal methods for skin irritation and corrosion testing

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) issued a new decision framework favouring the use of human cell–based and other non-animal approaches to assess the range of severity of skin irritants from corrosive to non- or minimally irritating substances. It provides transparency and consistency to the data submission and review process, increasing confidence in the use of non-animal data.

The new framework references and aligns with the concepts described in a 2025 paper, titled “Human relevance of in vivo and in vitro skin irritation tests for hazard classification of pesticides”, which was co-authored by the EPA, toxicity testing experts, industry, and others. The paper demonstrated that tests that do not use rabbits are more consistent and as or more reflective of human responses.

The EPA, the Science Consortium, and the Institute for In Vitro Sciences will co-present a poster describing the framework at the upcoming Society of Toxicology annual meeting on Monday, 23 March 2026 in San Diego.

The framework follows the 2024 framework for eye irritation testing that stated a preference for the use of non-animal, human cell–based methods, reflecting a global trend towards the use of more modern, reliable, and human-relevant toxicity tests to best protect human health.