Testing cosmetics on animals

Cosmetic animal testing is banned in many parts of the world, including Colombia, the European Union, the United Kingdom, India,[1][2] and Norway.

[7] The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to endorse animal testing methods.

In some tests, a chemical adjuvant is injected to boost the immune system, which was typically performed on guinea pigs.

[8] Acute toxicity: This test is used to determine the danger of exposure to a chemical by mouth, skin, or inhalation.

Other tests can use a smaller number of animals but can cause convulsions, loss of motor function, and seizures.

[11] To address potential issues with other parts of the human body, research companies such as NOTOX have developed a synthetic model of the human liver, which is the main organ to detox the body, to test harmful ingredients and chemicals to see if the liver can detox those elements.

Some of these companies are those that make laundry detergent, makeup, toilet bowl cleaner, anti-aging creams, and tanning lotion.

This technology could potentially be great, but it was a major downfall, 'Ministomachs that took about nine weeks to cultivate in a petri dish formed "oval-shaped, hollow structures".

The rodents reach sexual maturity in about five weeks and begin mating soon after to produce the next generation to start the rat life cycle over again".

[citation needed] On top of the extremely short time it takes a rat to mature, they can provide us with a complete set of organ systems, not just a paper-thin sheet of cells.

Typical gestation periods last only a few weeks, allowing each female rat to produce around five litters a year".

These civilizations, led by men like Aristotle and Erasistratus, used live animals to test various medical procedures".

[16] This testing was important because it led to new discoveries such as how blood circulated and the fact that living beings needed air to survive.

"Proving the germ theory of disease was the crowning achievement of the French scientist Louis Pasteur.

He was not the first to propose that diseases were caused by microscopic organisms, but the view was controversial in the 19th century and opposed the accepted theory of 'spontaneous generation'".

In 1665, scientists Robert Hooke and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek discovered and studied how germs worked.

However, they are still required by trading standards and consumer protection laws in most countries to show their products are not toxic and not dangerous to public health.

The United States and Japan are frequently criticized for their insistence on stringent safety measures, which often require animal testing.

Although Japanese law does not require non-medicated cosmetics to be tested on animals, it does not prohibit it either, leaving the decision to individual companies.

[31][32] In June 2020, the Senate of the Republic of Colombia approved a resolution banning the commercialization and testing of cosmetics on animals.

[33] In August 2020, presidential assent was granted to the resolution, thus effectively banning the testing of cosmetics on animals in Colombia.

[37] In May 2018, the European Parliament voted for the EU and its Member States to work towards a UN convention against the use of animal testing for cosmetics.

[38] The four EFTA countries that are not in the EU, i.e. Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Iceland, also banned cosmetic testing.

[47][48] Shortly before the ban went into effect on 9 November 2019, however, it was noted that most Taiwan cosmetic companies already did not experiment with animals.

[50] The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is potentially "making strides toward ending cosmetics testing on animals.

[57] Chinese law was further amended in April 2020, fully dropping all remaining mandatory animal testing requirements for all cosmetics - both locally produced and imported, instead creating a regulatory 'preference' for non-animal based testing methods in the safety certification of cosmetic products.