Environmental professionals are expected to exhibit the highest standards of honesty and integrity. Accordingly, our activities require honesty, impartiality, fairness, and equity, and we must be dedicated to the protection and welfare of environmental resources. Environmental professionals must perform under a standard of professional behavior that requires adherence to the highest principles of ethical conduct.

Commitment to ethical professional conduct is expected of every member of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, and each member shall:

• Conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully, with objectivity and integrity, so as to enhance the honor and reputation of the profession.
• Avoid conflicts of interest and situations that may imply a conflict of interest.
• Give proper credit for intellectual property and honor property rights.
• Recognize and respect confidentiality, but be honest and forth-coming in all issues of public record.
• Abstain from deceptive acts such as fabricating, falsifying, or suppressing results, deliberately misrepresenting research findings, or otherwise committing scientific fraud.
• Strive to accurately communicate scientific understanding and knowledge, and to avoid and discourage dissemination of erroneous, biased, or exaggerated statements.
• Conduct research and related activities (1) so as to avoid or minimize adverse environmental effects of that research and (2) in compliance with legal requirements for protection of researchers, human subjects, or research organisms and systems.
• Abstain from discriminating against others.

SETAC Animals in Research Guidance Statement

Consistent with our long-standing interests in environmental protection, conservation, education, research, and the general well-being of organisms (animals and plants), the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry supports the following principles (in accordance with applicable country-specific laws and regulations).

• Respect for all life forms and systems is an inherent characteristic of environmental professionals; the respectful treatment of organisms is both an ethical and a scientific necessity.
• Methods designed to reduce, refine, or replace the need for experimental organisms are advocated.
• In the absence of data, research with experimental organisms is the most reliable means of identifying toxic properties of chemicals and other environmental stressors and for establishing risks to environmental health.
• Care must be exercised to avoid introduction of exotic/non-indigenous organisms to natural environments.