Commentary on ''Toxicity testing in the 21st century: a vision and a strategy''

Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy, from the National Research Council Committee on Toxicity Testing and Assessment of Environmental Agents, presents a vision wherein toxicology testing moves from feeding test substances to animals for their lifetimes, and assessing clinical laboratory and histopathological changes, to human tissue studies made suitable by recent technological advances in computational biology, toxicogenomics, and the like. This is to be accomplished by elucidating toxicity pathways complemented by targeted testing. The report focuses on the array of available new concepts and attendant technology that the committee considers relevant to its proffer, but, in the final analysis, it describes little in the way of robust strategy for achieving the stated goals. From that perspective, the vision, as described, is no more innovative or far-reaching than goals directed at the utility of cellular metabolism measurements put forth fifty years ago. The report generally lacks the coherence and organization that could have given greater credibility to the committee's deliberative effort.