The ECHA requested from Honeywell that the company should carry out a 90-day inhalation experiment on rabbits for a refrigerant for its car air conditioner system. The ECEAE was allowed to intervene in the appeal, along with DuPont, which also makes the refrigerant. This is the first decision by the BoA on REACH testing requirements.

In a landmark ruling, the BoA has decided that ECHA breached the key REACH principle that animals should only be used as a last resort. ECHA had argued that the principle was limited to data-sharing and therefore irrelevant in the present context. The BoA also decided that the ECHA decision was disproportionate (a key principle of EU law), in that it failed to: identify properly what the aim of the experiment was; take account of the unprecedented nature of the experiment or whether rabbits were the appropriate species; consider whether the results would in fact be useful in the first place; or consider whether the experiment would be permitted in the EU or even whether anyone could carry it out. As the ECEAE had argued, ECHA should have adopted a ‘stepwise’ approach, looking first at whether non-animal approaches could allay the concern it identified.

More information:
http://eceae.org/en/category/latest-news/322/eceae-welcomes-ruling-in-landmark-rabbits-testing-case
http://www.echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/13575/a_005_2011_boa_decision_en.pdf