Animal testing
Cosmetic products used daily by consumers are not tested on animals
In the UK animal testing has not taken place on cosmetic products since 1997 and their ingredients since 1998 (a voluntary industry initiative that led to all licences for such testing being withdrawn). In the European Union (EU), a complete ban on the testing of cosmetic products on animals was introduced by the European cosmetic legislation in September 2004, reinforcing the voluntary action by the European industry to seek alternatives.
All cosmetic products are required to be safe. Not only is there a legal obligation, cosmetic manufacturers also have a moral obligation to produce only safe products. It is essential to the cosmetics industry that consumers have confidence in the safety of the products they use. Every product must undergo a safety assessment before it can be placed on the market.
The safety of a cosmetic product can be assessed on the basis of the safety profile of the ingredients. The majority of products are made from ingredients that have a well-established safety record. Because of this, the ingredients do not require animal testing on a routine basis.
View the video below for the expert opinion from the CTPA's Director-General, Dr Chris Flower, a Chartered Biologist and Toxicologist.
Why may some cosmetic ingredients require safety testing?
If the safety profile of an ingredient comes under question (perhaps from new research) then it is important that its safety in cosmetics is scrutinised. Innovation, bringing improvements in human health and safety as well as to the environment (such as biodegradability), can also lead to the need for safety testing of ingredients.
It is important that there is a recognised way of assessing the safety of ingredients. In many cases, animal testing has remained the only accepted method required by regulatory bodies for assuring the health and safety of workers developing and handling new chemical substances. These substances may be used for many purposes other than as cosmetic ingredients.
Even so, only a tiny proportion of all the animals used in research are used to evaluate cosmetic ingredient safety. According to official European Commission data for 2005[1], animal testing for the purposes of safety evaluation of cosmetic ingredients made up just 0.04% of all animals used for scientific purposes in the EU. This number is represented by the thin black line in the pie chart below.
Pie chart showing proportion of animals used in cosmetic ingredient testing in the EU in 2005[1]
These figures are the most recent available, but refer to the year after* the testing of cosmetic products was banned in the EU. Even so, according to the most up-to-date Commission data from before the 2004 ban (for the year 2002[2]), an even smaller proportion of just 0.025% of all experimental animals used were for the safety evaluation of "products or substances, used or intended to be used mainly as cosmetics or toiletries".
(*Figures relate to 2005 with the exception of one member state who reported figures for 2004).
Testing using animals has always been a last resort, not least because of the ethical concerns involved, as well as being expensive and time-consuming. If available, alternatives are less expensive and quicker to perform while providing data of equally high quality.
For the cosmetics industry, it is vital that such alternatives are developed, validated (by repeat tests to show reliable results) and are accepted by the appropriate international regulatory bodies in place of data from animal testing.
There are testing and marketing bans approaching - what are these?
You may have heard about a number of Europe-wide bans relating to the testing of cosmetics and cosmetic ingredients using animals. These bans are written into the European Cosmetics Directive, which is the legislation governing the safety of cosmetic products in the EU, including the UK, with specific dates as key milestones.
Learn more about these bans here.
What do the claims of "Not Tested on Animals" mean?
The European Commission has published guidelines on claims[3] with strict criteria that aim to provide more clarity for consumers. Companies can choose whether or not to label the product with a claim such as “Not Tested on Animals” or similar, including logos, but where they do so they must make it very clear what this means. The absence of a labelled claim does not mean that a product or its ingredients have been tested on animals.
Where can I find out more?
[1] 5th Report from Commission to Council and European Parliament on Statistics on the number of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes in Member States of the EU (5.11.2007 COM (2007) 675 final).
[2] 4th Report from Commission to Council and European Parliament on Statistics on the number of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes in Member States of the EU (20.1.2005 COM (2005) 7 final).
[3] Commission Recommendation 2006/406/EC: Guidelines on the claims referring to the absence of testing on animals.
Read “Working together to replace animal testing” published by Colipa, the European cosmetic trade association in 2009.
