Impact of new Food and Drug Administration regulations on college, university, and experiment station researchers.

The Good Laboratory Practice regulations adopted by the Food and Drug Administration describe specific procedures to assure the integrity of the research results. Those studies conducted with the intent to provide data on the safety of drugs and chemicals will be required to comply with the published relations. The process of bringing research laboratories into compliance with the regulations may be either arduous or fairly routine depending on the organization, goals, and type of research. Typically, the Good Laboratory Practice regulations will increase sharply the cost of health safety information. Hiring more and better trained technical and professional personnel will be much of this expense. If university and experiment station researchers choose to avoid compliance with these regulations, then agricultural research science may not continue to be recognized as an authority on the safety of products used for production of human food. Irrespective of whether universities choose to conduct regulated research or delegate this role to other segments of society, academic institutions must assume the role of training those individuals needed to conduct toxicity research.