IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 11

cutting-edge nonanimal test methods
development of nonanimal testing
be used in this cutting-edge field." In
methods as well as consulting with the
2015, Clippinger organized a nannumerous international regulatory committees. From the
otechnology workshop with
the goal of driving innovabeginning, Jessica Sandler
tion in the field of toxicity
has led both initiatives.
testing of nanomaterials.
Under Sandler's leaderThis collaboration among
ship, the Regulatory Testgovernment, academia,
ing Division and PISC have
industry, and PISC shows
broadened PETA's scope
how much PETA's science
from an animal-rights advoJessica Sandler
arm has been able to accomcacy group to a knowledgeplish in the last 15 years.
able and sought-after partner in both
industry and government. Their timing could not be better. Today, as every
The Sea Change in Toxicity Testing
industry imaginable seems to be finding
If the animal rights movement had
novel and exciting applications for nanexisted in the 1970s, Sandler is sure
otechnology, regulatory agencies find
she would have been a part of it. Yet,
themselves facing a huge and immediate
even at Harvard, there was no such
need for new testing requirements.
movement. In fact, Sandler says, when
As regulatory agencies turn their
PETA first appeared on the scene in the
attention to nanotechnology, PISC Assoearly 1980s, the phrase animal rights
ciate Director Dr. Amy Clippinger pushes
appeared in quotation marks more often
ahead to ensure that only "...the most
than not.

*

Sandler's master's degree is in environmental health science, and she spent
her early career at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and
the U.S. Geological Survey working to
protect people from harmful chemicals,
so she has been on the other side of the
fence. She has witnessed firsthand the
limits of animal testing. "You would see
people dying from chromium and benzene poisoning and whole populations
affected by arsenic in the drinking water,
and yet the animals in the laboratories
weren't being affected in the same ways,"
she says.
When Sandler joined PETA as a federal agency liaison in 1998, the EPA had
just announced a massive high production volume (HPV) chemical testing
program that aimed to retest 3,000 of
the most common industrial chemicals. Sandler saw much of this testing
as remarkably unnecessary. "I could
see the list included chemicals that we

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016
