Reliability
In 1971, before the implementation in 1981 of the modern Draize protocol, toxicologists Carrol Weil and Robert Scala of Carnegie Mellon University distributed three test substances for comparative analysis to 24 different university and state laboratories. The laboratories returned significantly different evaluations, from non-irritating to severely irritating, for the same substances. A 2004 study by the U.S. Scientific Advisory Committee on Alternative Toxicological Methods analyzed the modern Draize skin test. They found that the test would:
- Misidentify a serious irritant as safe: 0-0.01%
- Misidentify a mild irritant as safe: 3.7%-5.5%
- Misidentify a serious irritant as a mild irritant: 10.3%-38.7%
Read more about this topic: Draize Test