The Chinese Government have announced that, by 2020, they will no longer require animal testing on cosmetic products. Additionally, they have approved two non-animal methods of testing cosmetic products in China. This comes as huge progress to those campaigning to stop animal testing.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) provided initial funding for this groundbreaking work, completed by Institute for In Vitro Sciences (IIVS).
The worldwide cosmetics industry is estimated to have a worth of $532 Billion Dollars, as of 2019. Many of the well-known brands that make up this worth, still create their products by testing them on animals.
Companies often test on animals to test the safety and efficiency of their products before testing them on humans. Animal testing for cosmetics is known to involve skin and eye irritation tests, repeated force-feeding tests over weeks or months and "lethal dosage" tests. However the National Institutes of Health (NIH) says 95% of all drugs shown to be safe and effective in animal tests, fail in human trials as they do not work or are dangerous. With this, the Humane Society International estimate that approximately 100,000-200,000 animals suffer or die just for cosmetics every year.
Many brands are known to test their products on animals, as current laws stand in China they make it compulsory for companies to test their cosmetic products on animals before they are sold in the country. These include, NARS, Bobbi Brown, Glam Glow and Victoria's Secret.
Testing cosmetic products (or their ingredients) on animals has been banned in the UK since 1998 - and banned in all EU members in 2009. With alternatives to testing on animals becoming more commonly used, these include using human cells and tissues, advanced computer-modelling techniques and studies with human volunteers.
There are many organisations and Twitter accounts dedicated to certifying the brands that are proven to be cruelty free. The Leaping Bunny Program is one of these certifying organisations. The program update its 17.4k Twitter followers with the brands they have approved that do not test on animals during any stage of product development.
In an interview covered by the Guardian in 2005, neurosurgeon Tipu Aziz (pictured here, courtesy of Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences) defended the use of animals for testing cosmetics. He stated; 'If it's proven to reduce suffering through animals tests, it's not wrong to use them'.
The Oxford Neurosurgeon faced a lot of criticism for making the statement, 7 years after the subject had been banned in the UK. Clive Page, researcher at the University of London, dismissed Aziz's opinion by saying, 'I don't think we can justify using animals for cosmetics research'. He added, 'Myself and a few others who talk out about this have worked very hard to try and explain to the public why we do medical research on animals and why it's still necessary'.
Nevertheless, beauty brands such as Lush, NYX, Too Faced, Tarte and Burt's Bees, are all proven to be cruelty free. If you are unsure on how to identify a cruelty free beauty brand, click here.
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