On June 23, 2006, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) filed a petition with the EPA requesting that the agency’s pesticide and industrial chemical testing guidelines be amended to allow companies to use internationally accepted non-animal tests to assess whether a substance would be likely to cause skin corrosion.

According to PETA, the EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances should amend its Health Effects Test Guideline 870.2500 for Acute Dermal Irritation to incorporate an exclusively non-animal approach to assess dermal corrosion. The tests would be those that have been scientifically validated and internationally accepted as codified in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Test Guideline 431. It is not clear when the EPA will respond to the petition.