The program arose from congressional concerns about the health effects of chemical agents in the environment.

[citation needed] The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993[3] directed NIEHS to establish criteria for the validation and regulatory acceptance of alternative test methods and a process for their subsequent implementation.

This led to the establishment of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods via the ICCVAM Authorization Act of 2000,[4] which stated that ICCVAM would exist as a permanent interagency committee of NIEHS under NICEATM.

[citation needed] In addition to supporting ICCVAM, NICEATM activities include: NICEATM publishes results of its analyses of alternative test methods and approaches in the peer-reviewed literature and presents at meetings of the Society of Toxicology and the World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences.

[6] The 14th Report, published in 2016, contains "248 listings of agents, substances, mixtures, and exposure circumstances that are known or reasonably anticipated to cause cancer in humans."