EU scientists now say animal tests are needed on cosmetics anyway
As the clock ticks down to the 11 March deadline for the EU cosmetics directive’s ban on animal testing for cosmetics ingredients, official EU advisors have concluded that these tests are still needed.
As the clock ticks down to the 11 March deadline for the EU cosmetics directive’s ban on animal testing for cosmetics ingredients, official EU advisors have concluded that these tests are still needed.
The EU’s scientific committee on consumer products has claimed that insufficient alternative laboratory tests have been developed to assess the potential mutagenicity of cosmetics ingredients.
In a formal opinion, the committee has said: “Consequently, after 11 March 2009, in many cases, it will not be possible to evaluate the mutagenic potential of cosmetic ingredients on a sound scientific basis. Because the potential mutagenicity of these ingredients is of major concern, an important part of the toxicological evaluation of cosmetic ingredients cannot be accomplished.”
This opinion will be controversial because there is little time to amend the legislation; passing EU laws on such controversial topics usually takes years.
The committee said the problem was that while laboratory tests were excellent at excluding possible mutagenetic reactions in certain situations, not only could they currently assess all scenarios: “It is impossible to predict whether these tests can completely substitute ‘in vivo’ mutagenicity testing.”
Relying on ‘in vitro’ laboratory experiments could yield “false negative results” warned the committee. “In order to determine whether a positive in vitro result has any relevance in vivo, follow-up testing in animals is inevitable,” it added.