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Educational Materials Consumer Product Safety Place Request for Information This sixteen page booklet entitled, Consumer Product Safety - Why We Need it. How we Achieve it., is published by Join Hands, a non-profit health and safety education alliance based in Washington, DC. In an attractive and easily readable format, the publication covers key issues and questions about product safety testing. The booklet is divided into the following sections: Product Safety Research. We all Need It Before There Was Safety Testing Modern Standards of Safety The Process of safety Assurance Animal Welfare. A Serious Responsibility Alternative Methods. The Hope For The Future Summary: Safety Research A Better Understanding, A Better Life Regulatory Background Information This booklet shows that consumer product safety testing has many aspects including, medical research, home, school and work environments, public safety and environmental cleanup. Using artwork, pictures and words, this publication leads the reader through the process of evaluating existing knowledge from previous non-animal and animal studies as well as human data from clinical trials and work experience. Animal tests are used only when there is not enough evidence from non-animal tests to establish safety. Use of computer and other “alternative” methods are shown to be an important part of the process in ensuring the safety of products sold to consumers. And efforts to Refine, Reduce and Replace the use of animals in safety testing are discussed, to include the concept of validation of new alternative methods before they can be accepted for use.   This WebSite2 is maintained by John Ellis (psbr@psbr.org) Please mail all comments and suggestions to him. ©2009; Pennsylvania Society for Biomedical Research.