In the late 1990s, the Environmental Protection Agency launched three chemical testing programs that, as originally planned, would rely heavily on animal tests and all but ignore alternative approaches. All three programs would subject hundreds of thousands of animals to potentially painful or lethal tests. Fortunately, the EPA has begun to modify at least some of these programs in light of recommendations and criticism from the animal protection community as well as from the pro-alternatives voices within the scientific community.

• The High Production Volume (HPV) Chemical Testing Program seeks to create standardized toxicity profiles on chemicals used widely in commerce (i.e., the 2,800 chemicals produced or imported into the United States in quantities of one million pounds or more annually).

• The Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP) is designed to assess whether chemicals can cause harmful effects on people by disrupting their endocrine system, the hormone-secreting glands that regulate important bodily functions such as blood-sugar levels.

• The Voluntary Children's Chemical Evaluation Program (VCCEP) seeks to generate toxicity profiles for those chemicals to which children are frequently exposed. As with the High Production Volume and Endocrine Disruptor programs, the VCCEP's proposed testing battery relies heavily on the use of animals.