The Dark Side of Cosmetic Industries...
|By Prateek Balana|
Cosmetic Industries is amongst the ones that have been growing well in the years gone by. However, as we all might know, many cosmetic products were and allegedly many even today are tested on animals before making it to the stores. This has been a clear case of animal cruelty for many years now. But in recent times, this testing is said to have reduced. But there are still some questions to be asked.
ARE YOUR COSMETICS CRUELTY-FREE?
Nowadays, a number of beauty care and cosmetic companies promote their products with labels claiming like "Cruelty-Free" or “Not Tested on Animals”. However, as there are no legal definitions for these terms, you can’t always trust them to be true. While some companies apply these claims to their finished products, they may still rely on raw material suppliers or contract laboratories that perform testing on animals. Other companies base their claims on the fact that they are not currently testing certain materials or products, despite having conducted animal tests when first introducing their products. It is estimated that approximately 1,00,000-2,00,000 animals suffer and die just for cosmetics every year around the world. These are rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, rats and mice. While dogs and monkeys are never used to test cosmetics anywhere in the world, they are used to test other types of chemicals. Typically, animal tests for cosmetics include skin and eye irritation tests where chemicals are rubbed onto the shaved skin or dripped into the eyes of rabbits; repeated oral force-feeding studies lasting weeks or months to look for signs of general illness or specific health hazards, such as cancer or birth defects; and even widely condemned “lethal dose” tests, in which animals are forced to swallow massive amounts of a test chemical to determine the dose that causes death. These tests can cause considerable pain and distress including blindness, swollen eyes, sore bleeding skin, internal bleeding and organ damage, birth defects, convulsions and death. Pain relief is not provided and at the end of a test, the animals are killed, normally by asphyxiation, neck-breaking or decapitation.
WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?
Replacing animal tests does not mean putting human patients at risk. It also does not mean halting medical progress. Instead, replacing animal testing will improve the quality as well as the humaneness of our science. Instead of measuring how long it takes a chemical to burn the cornea of a rabbit’s eye, manufacturers can now drop that chemical onto cornea-like 3D tissue structures produced from human cells. The standard test on pregnant rats to find out if chemicals or drugs may harm the developing baby can only detect 60% of dangerous substances. But a cell-based alternative (EST) has 100% accuracy at detecting very toxic chemicals. With the growing sophistication of computers, the ability to ‘model’ or replicate aspects of the human body is ever more possible. Computer models of the heart, lungs, kidneys, skin, digestive and musculoskeletal systems already exist. They can be used to conduct virtual experiments based on existing information and mathematical data. Likewise, human skin cultures can be grown and purchased for testing of such chemicals which are lethal for animals since modern problems require modern solutions.
WHAT IS BEING DONE?
However, there is good news for animals and the people who care about them as animal testing for cosmetics has been banned throughout the 28 countries of the European Union since 2009. Thanks in large part to HSI’s BeCrueltyFree campaign, the EU also banned the sale of cosmetic products or ingredients subject to new animal testing after March 2013. Israel imposed testing and a sales ban in 2007 and 2013, respectively. And following a vibrant campaign #BeCrueltyFree India team, India also introduced a national test ban in 2013. Most recently #BeCrueltyFree Brazil team congratulated the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo for introducing a complete cosmetics animal testing ban in January 2014, and #BeCrueltyFree New Zealand achieved a national cosmetics animal testing ban in 2015! These bans are putting increasing pressure on companies around the world to abandon animal testing once and for all. Unfortunately, the United States, one of the world’s biggest cosmetics and personal care markets, continues to lack such a ban. So, be aware that many of the products you are using in your daily regimen might have been first tested on helpless animals.
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