Toxicology: a science and an art.
Toxicology is both a science and an art. The science of toxicology characterizes the adverse effects of a chemical by integrating all available scientific information. Toxicologists must ask whether current protocols truly characterize the toxicity of a chemical in terms of identifying all the potential adverse effects. The art of toxicology involves the use of a database to predict toxic risk. A key question for the future of toxicology is "can alternative models contribute to progress or are they useless?" This paper concludes in favour of progress if such alternative models help to improve the science of toxicology. As a practical approach to improve the art of toxicology it proposes reinforcement of flexibility of current regulations, encouragement of the production and submission of data of alternative tests, and evaluation of these data on a strictly scientific basis. ECVAM, the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods, will play a major role in implementing this new and more scientific approach to toxicology.
Roberfroid
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Unité de Biochimie Toxicologique et Cancérologique, Départment des Sciences Pharmaceutiques, Université Catholique de Louvain, BCTC 7369, B-1200, Belgium.