InVitro Corrosives Test Gets OSHA OK
InVitro International said the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration will accept its proprietary product Corrositex as an alternative to animal testing to determine how corrosive various chemical and waste products are to human skin.
The new regulatory acceptance follows approval of Corrositex by the U.S. Department of Transportation in April, 1993, and the Canadian transportation agency in January, the company said.
Officials at the U.S. Department of Transportation have estimated that the market for corrosives test products is worth up to $500 million a year.
A spokeswoman for InVitro said Corrositex enables manufacturers, shippers and users of corrosive products to test the materials without resorting to the use of live rabbits, as has been the practice in the past.
OSHA requires manufacturers and users of hazardous materials, including corrosives, to provide appropriate warnings for the use of these materials in the workplace. The Department of Transportation requires shippers to determine corrosiveness in order to appropriately label materials for shipment.
Before Corrositex gained acceptance, both the U.S. and Canadian transportation agencies determined corrosiveness by measuring the time it took a product to burn through the shaved skin of albino rabbits.
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