Thanks, Trib

THANKS TO THE TRIBUNE for the report on proposed legislation (AB1855) to overturn recent ruling by the State Supreme Court in order to hide police officers' salaries and identities from the public.

Everyone should join the Newspaper Group and Publisher's Association in lobbying our representatives to oppose this measure that would further remove powerful public employees from accountability to the public they are supposed to serve.

Beth Weinberger

Oakland

Animal experiments

not a 'necessary evil'

APRIL 20-26 marks World Week for Animals in Laboratories, an event initiated over 30 years ago.

Around the world, concerned people will deconstruct the myth that animal experiments are a necessary evil, and expose that they are an inhumane and inefficient way to conduct biomedical research.

In February 2008, three key U.S. government agencies arrived at a revolutionary agreement to begin phasing out animal testing and instead pursue innovative and animal-free methods to evaluate the safety of new drugs and chemicals.

The Environmental Protection Agency the National Toxicology Program, and the National Institutes of Health mapped out a five- year plan that utilizes cutting-edge technology to replace the use of animals.

The agreement is based on a report issued by the National Research Council in June 2007, which concluded ending reliance on animal tests will allow scientists to more accurately and reliably predict health risks.

Yet despite the government's acknowledgment significant biological differences between species miscalculate the safety of drugs and chemicals, the NIH still devotes about two-thirds of its $29.2 billion budget to animal research.

This includes many millions spent on cruel and ridiculous animal experiments to purportedly study the effects of nicotine, alcohol and other addictive drugs on humans.

It's time for the NIH to apply the scientific rationale from the NRC report to all areas of research and scale back funding of wasteful and grotesque animal experiments.

Arin Weitzman

Oakland

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