National Toxicology Program
The National Toxicology Program (NTP) is an inter-agency program run by the United States Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate, evaluate, and report on toxicology within public agencies. The National Toxicology Program is headquartered at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). The NIEHS Director, currently Dr. Richard Woychik, Ph.D., also concurrently serves as NTP Director. History. The program was established in 1978 by Joseph A. Califano Jr., then the United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (today known as the Secretary of Health and Human Services). The program arose from congressional  concerns about the health effects of chemical agents in the environment. In October 1981, Secretary Richard S. Schwiker granted permanent status to the program. Interagency Center for Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods. The NTP Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM) supports the development and evaluation of new, revised, and alternative methods for chemical safety testing. Alternative methods are methods for safety testing of chemicals and chemical products that use fewer or no animals or that minimize or prevent animal pain and distress. NICEATM is directed by Dr. Warren Casey, PhD, DABT. The NIH Revitalization Act of  1993 directed NIEHS to establish criteria for the validation and regulatory acceptance of alternative test methods and a process for their subsequent implementation. This led to the establishment of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods via the ICCVAM Authorization Act of 2000, which stated that ICCVAM would exist as a permanent interagency committee of NIEHS under NICEATM. In addition to supporting ICCVAM, NICEATM activities include: NICEATM publishes results of its analyses of alternative test methods and approaches in the peer-reviewed literature and presents at meetings of the Society of Toxicology and the World Congress on  Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences. Report on Carcinogens. The NIEHS National Toxicology Program's Office of the Report on Carcinogens is responsible for publishing the "Report On Carcinogens". The latest report from 2016 Report is the 14th edition. The Report contains "248 listings of agents, substances, mixtures, and exposure circumstances that are known or reasonably anticipated to cause cancer in humans." This edition added seven newly reviewed listings, of which the only synthetic chemical was trichloroethylene.