Many people are demanding that scientists stop testing all sorts of cosmetics on animals that are subjected to a lot of suffering. And now it turns out that scientists from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology have come up with a similar alternative.
As part of the U.S. government's efforts to reduce animal testing of cosmetics, scientists have developed a new skin allergen screening protocol. Not only does it not require animal testing, the protocol is also a potentially faster and more affordable verification method, although it gives similar performance. The researchers relied on the existing method as they tried to improve its efficiency, availability, and quality control.
Using a new animal-free protocol, they evaluated 92 chemicals and found that the results were in good agreement with conventional animal testing for 77% of the compounds. This increases the credibility of the implementation of the new method and paves the way for its standardization. The governing bodies of the European Union and even a number of US states have already banned the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals. However, in some parts of the world, these tests are still carried out to evaluate the safety of cosmetics.
Because the rules and standards vary by country and region, it is quite difficult to change this situation. Some screening methods without animal skin allergens already exist, but a number of limitations have prevented their widespread adoption. For example, direct analysis of peptide reactivity requires expensive equipment. It is also much slower. (READ MORE)