Based on literature review and own experience, grounds for necessity of toxicological assessment of goods and ecological state are given. As industry and economical activity develops, new chemicals, materials and goods appear, the problem of environmental protection and human chemical safety is becoming increasingly crucial. According to the legislation of most civilized countries, including Russian Federation, all chemicals, materials, goods, industrial waste and consumption residue which are potentially dangerous for humans must pass toxicological expert examination. Classical toxicological study techniques of chemicals, products and goods containing them, are labor-and time-consuming, expensive and as a rule require a lot of laboratory animals of various species. Moreover, the use of mammals is embarrassing from an ethical point of view. Therefore in late decades a search for new alternative techniques and instruments which could reliably reflect the effect of various toxicants on human body is actively being carried out. Sanitary-toxicological methods are shown to be predominantly used for the quality assessment and regulation of the production and environmental objects, especially in perfumes and cosmetics examination due to the prohibition of testing of cosmetics and its ingredients on animals in European Union countries. General characteristics and availability of the determination of the toxicity with the use of alternative testing techniques, such as computer toxicity simulation (in silico techniques), grouping of similar chemicals into categories, laboratory research (in chemico, ex vivo, in vitro methods) are reported. Characteristics of up-to-date alternative techniques which are most widely used in sanitary-toxicological studies are shown.

Alternative toxicological methods used in Russia to assess safety of food and non-food products have been reviewed. Along with traditional toxicological methods of monitoring various alternative toxicological study techniques are used to assess product safety. Those are methods using biological test-objects, so-called biological test methods, or in vitro methods which are allowed to be used from the legislative viewpoint. Alternative toxicological methods are based on risk degree assessment of the studied object by response of living organisms (test-objects) to adverse factor exposure. Information resulting from applied bio-testing methods represents combined toxic effect of all toxicants present in the given medium and their simultaneous presence. When assessing product safety by toxicological indices using alternative biological models, general toxic and irritating effects are to be studied and the test-objects are cattle semen, luminescent bacteria, chick egg chorioallantoic membrane, human and animal cell cultures and isolated organs. In vitro methods with cattle semen and luminescent bacteria playing the role of test-objects are also used to assess alcohol product toxicity, in particular spirits and vodkas. Thus, alternative study methods are widely known and commonly used in practice to prove safety of consumer goods and alcohol-containing foodstuffs.

The report “Russia and the World: 2021. Annual Forecast: Economy and Foreign Policy” continues the series of yearly publications of the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) and Foundation for Prospective Studies and Initiatives. It consists of two parts: “Economy” and “Foreign Policy”. Part I focuses upon Russian foreign trade-economic relations and analysis and forecast of the world (Russia, Europe, the USA, Japan, India) economic trends in 2020-2021, including international financial markets and main Russian export markets. The report is based on the decades long IMEMO experience in forecast research. Part II presents the forecast of international relations for 2021, it analyzes main challenges for Russia and options to respond them.