TOXICOLOGY - A SCIENCE AND AN ART

Toxicology is both a science and an art. The science of toxicology cha racterizes the adverse effects of a chemical by integrating all availa ble scientific information. Toxicologists must ask whether current pro tocols truly characterize the toxicity of a chemical in terms of ident ifying all the potential adverse effects. The art of toxicology involv es the use of a database to predict toxic risk. A key question for the future of toxicology is ''can alternative models contribute to progre ss or are they useless?'' This paper concludes in favour of progress i f such alternative models help to improve the science of toxicology. A s a practical approach to improve the art of toxicology it proposes re inforcement of flexibility of current regulations, encouragement of th e production and submission of data of alternative tests, and evaluati on of these data on a strictly scientific basis. ECVAM, the European C entre for the Validation of Alternative Methods, will play a major rol e in implementing this new and more scientific approach to toxicology.