The Ugly Side of Cosmetics-Animal Testing

Retrospect

As early as 10,000 BC, men and women used scented oils and ointments to clean and soften their skin and mask body odour. Dyes and paints were used to beautify skin, body and hair. They put colour on their lips and cheeks, stained their nails with henna, and lined their eyes and eyebrows heavily with kohl. If that was so in 10,000 BC, it is still the same. Now there are companies engaged in fulfilling people's desire to look good. We still take pride in our appearance. Indeed, people have been working hard at looking their best for centuries. That is why cosmetics have such a long history.But there are some cruel facts about the cosmetic Industry. Cosmetics have been used for, as long as there have been people to use them and now it will remain till the time there are animals to test on.

Animal Testing

Every year, cosmetics companies kill millions of animals to test their products. These companies claim that they test on animals to establish the safety of their products and ingredients for consumers. In the Draize test, caustic substances are placed in the eyes of conscious rabbits to evaluate damage to sensitive eye tissues. This is extremely painful for the rabbits, who often scream when the substances are applied and sometimes break their necks or backs trying to escape the restraints. Lethal Dosage (LD) tests are used to determine the amount of a substance that will kill a predetermined ratio of animals. For example, in the LD50 test, subjects are forced to ingest poisonous substances (through stomach tubes, vapour spray inhalers or injection) until half of them die. Common reactions to LD tests include convulsions, vomiting, paralysis and bleeding from the eyes, nose, mouth or rectum.


There are thirteen main types of testing performed in the cosmetics industry, which potentially involve the use of animals. Animals are routinely cut open, poisoned, and forced to live in barren steel cages for years. Poor animals are also killed in order to produce new cosmetics or toiletries. Half the animals used in the testing die a few weeks afterwards. In late 80's and early 90's, Ethical Treatment of Animals' campaign was started against product testing on animals, which had immediate reaction from the stakeholders. But it is still in practice in a major way. Due to such campaigns and subsequent public anger against bloody, violent, and deadly business of animal experimentation, some companies prefer to hide behind the cloak of "deniability" and hire contract laboratories to get the job done. But the fact remains that the animals are being tortured and killed.


An indicative list of different experiments conducted on animals for cosmetic production

Skin Penetration

Used to determine the extent to which cosmetic ingredients might penetrate the skin (which is important in determining whether they may enter the bloodstream and be carried to parts of the body causing toxic effects). There is up to a five-fold difference in skin absorption rates between different animal species and humans.
Skin IrritancyRabbits and guinea pigs are usually used for skin irritancy testing, with product being applied to shaved - and occasionally abraded - skin areas. Redness, ulcers, rashes or swelling may occur. The species used lack the varied human repertoire of responses, partly due to a difference in the distribution of fine blood vessels. Their skin reacts to a limited degree and does not distinguish between very mild and moderate irritation. Comparative tests have shown considerable variability in irritancy response between the different species. For example, with an anti-dandruff shampoo, irritancy ranged from severe in rabbits to almost non-irritant in baboons.

Eye irritancy
In the Draize eye test, substances are dropped into the eyes of albino rabbits. The animals are often immobilised for this test, for example, by the use of stocks. Although it has been in use for over four decades, the predictions of the Draize test do not correlate well with human experience. For example, when 281 cases of accidental splashing of household products into people's eyes were compared with Draize rabbit eye test predictions for the same products, there were differences between human and rabbit responses of up to 250-fold. The Draize test grossly exaggerates irritant effects, and accurately predicts human responses less than 50% of the time.

Skin Sensitisation
Guinea pigs are used in these tests which measure the likelihood of a substance causing allergy with repeated application. There are about 15 different tests, most of which require 20-40 animals. The methods vary greatly in choice of dose and frequency of application, the solutions used for injecting, the way readings are taken and in interpretation –making comparison between the animal tests themselves difficult. Because exaggerated doses are often used, the tests over-estimate sensitisation. On the other hand, the tests sometimes fail to detect substances which have subsequently proved to be human sensitizers.

Photo-toxicity & Photo-sensitisation
These are skin reactions to chemicals brought on by exposure to the light. Guinea pigs, minipigs, hairless mice, rats and rabbits are generally used in tests for photo-toxicity, but the skin responses often seem quantitatively and qualitatively quite different from the comparable responses in human skin. These animal tests have not been validated to international standards.

So, next time you buy any cosmetic item, don't believe the slogans and ad jingles guaranteeing you –"A Beautiful you". Don't believe the well-paid model when she tells you how a particular product changed her life. Instead you check if it says: not tested on animals. Try to match your attentiveness for the ingredients with your expectations from the product. You can watch ingredients like - salicylic acid, polyoxyethylene, ceteareth-20, triclosan, peg-100 stearate, salicylic acid, triethanolamine, dibutyl phthalate or DBP. And if there is any scope, do not forget to recycle the jar.

Let there be a beautiful world with beautiful people. Amen!