Ethical Beauty: Science based alternatives to animal testing.

In order to be a more ethical based consumer, we need to know and promote the truth about the animal testing industry.

Studies have proven that animal testing incorrectly predicts human reaction to cosmetics. It’s only accurate 40 to 60% of the time, while science based alternatives are accurate 80% of the time. Not only is animal testing inefficient, it’s also expensive as well as not required in the USA for cosmetics or personal care. Yet, 80% of countries around the world still do not have laws against animal testing in cosmetics. 

Is your beauty routine ethical?

© beautybulletins.com All Rights Reserved.

What cosmetics tests are performed on animals?

Although they are not required by FDA law, several tests are commonly performed that subject beagles, other kinds of dogs, rats, rabbits and guinea pigs to cosmetics ingredients. These can include:

• Skin and eye irritation tests where chemicals are rubbed onto the shaved skin or dripped into the eyes of restrained rabbits without any pain relief. They are often left until they go blind or die.
• Repeated force-feeding studies (This includes shampoo and others soaps) lasting weeks or months to look for signs of general illness or specific health hazards such as cancer or birth defects. This includes shampoo and others soaps.
• The notorious Draize test. in which cosmetics, dishwashing liquid, drain cleaner, and other substances are dripped into the animal’s’ eyes, often causing redness, swelling, discharge, ulceration, haemorrhaging, cloudiness, or blindness.
• The LD50 test short for lethal dose, is one of the worst tests that was developed back in 1927 and is still in use today. Groups of animals are dosed with different amounts of a test substance in order to determine the dose which kills half of the animals!  Animals are often force-fed the substance. Widely condemned “lethal dose” tests, in which animals are forced to swallow large amounts of a test chemical to determine the dose that causes death.

At the end of a test, the animals are killed, normally by asphyxiation, neck-breaking or decapitation. Pain relief is not provided. In the United States, a large percentage of the animals used in such testing are not counted in official statistics and receive no protection under the Animal Welfare Act.

Animal testing is cruel and unreliable

“It is a federal system of sadistic torture, vivisection, and animal genocide, which has been carried on for decades under the fraudulent guise of respectable medical research. And nobody on the outside knows, or wants to know, or is willing to find out. You can’t imagine, or maybe you can, how many people are convinced – without knowing the first thing about it – Animal research is essential. Americans have been hopelessly brainwashed on this issue.”-Michael Tobias

These animal testing practices are both unnecessary and inaccurate

Alternatives to animal testing already exist.

Humane and safe, non-animal methods are already available to test new ingredients. These advanced modern science technologies are often cheaper, faster and more relevant to humans making them more reliable and consistent predictors of human safety.

 Many science and disease animal studies don’t translate to humans. They can be replaced with new organ-on-chip technology, sophisticated computer simulations, 3-D cultures of human cells, epidemiological studies, and other more modern methods.

According to the Humane Society of the U.S., there are more than 50 identified animal testing alternatives! Here’s just a few:

1. Lab-grown epidermis. It comes from human stem cells. These stem cells in our skin multiply constantly, so doesn’t it sound better to use our own skin than pets? I think yes. 

2. In Silico. This is a computer simulation model and becoming more and more popular. It’s quick and efficient and tests toxicity of chemicals on a human model. This method is time as well as cost efficient. 

3. Human trials.Wouldn’t this method make the most sense, since we are the ones that are going to be using the product? Probably. There are ways to safely do it by micro-dosing and microchip technologies. Using small doses, it can safely be tested if there is any reaction. 

4. Pyrogenicity – Using five human cells in this procedure with human whole blood, for detecting pyrogenicity by Gram-negative endotoxins. Pyrogenicity is another word for a vascular lesion or irritation on skin. 

5. Eye Irritation – using human cornea-like epithelium test method to identify chemicals not requiring classification in test methods that cause damage to the eye or eye irritation. This would be applying a routine use of topical anesthetics. 

6. Ecotoxicity – acute aquatic toxicity, using water, upper threshold concentration step-down approach. This pertains to aquatic ecology and aquatic chemistry, meaning this deals with freshwater, marine water, and sediment environments that marine animals use. 

7. Genotoxicity – Using in vitro methods, this alternative method is a reverse bacterial mutation test. This is testing the interactions of mammalian cells. In vitro occurs in a laboratory vessel or other controlled experimental environment rather than within a living organism.

8. Biologics & Vaccines – using human tetanus vaccines to test potency; getting rid of target-animal batch safety test. 

9. Metabolism – No, not concerning weight this time! This is testing human drug-drug interactions, enzyme induction, using metabolizing systems for in vitro testing of endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that can interfere with endocrine systems at certain doses. Disruptions can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders. 

Unreliable and ineffective animal tests mean consumer safety cannot be guaranteed. Only non-animal alternatives can combine human cell-based tests and sophisticated computer models to deliver human-relevant results in hours or days, unlike some animal tests that can take months or years. It’s well known that the vast majority of drugs that pass tests on animals do not work on humans. “The FDA reports that 92 percent of drugs approved for testing in humans fail to receive approval for human use. This failure rate has increased from 86 percent in 1985, in spite of all the ‘advances and refinements’ intended to make animal tests more accurate.”

Animal testing is completely unnecessary.

 “There’s really no need for animal testing and we just need to get everyone to move with the times with the new technology so that we’re getting cheaper, faster and more accurate testing done.” – Jessie Macneil-Brown

 What can you do to help defenseless animals?

 SHARE THIS POST. Vote with your dollars. Buy only cruelty free. Don’t support companies that do animal testing. Find cruelty free alternatives to your beauty, personal care and home care products. You can make a difference!

Take Action

Urge your representatives to support the Humane Cosmetics Act. Make a brief, polite note to your U.S. Senators and Representative and urge support for the Humane Cosmetics Act

Donate to The White Coat Waste project.

They find, expose, and de-fund wasteful government spending on animal experiments. To change public policy, they unite liberty lovers and animal lovers with hard-hitting investigations and public policy campaigns. While buying cruelty-free cosmetics and household products is a good start, the overwhelming majority of animal experimentation in the U.S. is being done in federally-funded laboratories that are not involved in consumer product development. This is why addressing the federal spending problem is the way to stop most animal experimentation.

(Source: Humane Society US, Social Compassion In Legislation)

© beautybulletins.com All Rights Reserved.

{{site_title}} © {{year}}. All Rights Reserved.