07-30-2023, 08:34 AM
This pops up repeatedly so I went digging while sipping my morning coffee and watching sunrise over the lake. It's several miles away, but I can SEE water, so I claim a lake view.
China had required local testing of complete formulations of imported cosmetics for two main reasons, neither of them safety.
1 - More work for the approved testing labs and the relatives of the politicians who owned them. Yes, I'm a cynic, but the "approved" labs and the ones owned by relatives of high ranking politicians have a BIG overlap.
2 - Put pressure on the countries of origin of these cosmetics to push for adding China to the list of countries whose ingredient testing is reciprocal. Testing and approval in one of the countries means approval in all ... and to be blunt, China's reputation for good lab work and quality control is not good.
NOTE: Companies that manufactured in mainland China were able to bypass mandatory animal testing, so it was definitely not about the safety.
China removed the requirement of pre-market animal testing. They have not removed pre-market animal testing itself. One of the requirements to sell in China is to provide a "safety assessment" from the country of origin (COO) ... which includes, of course, the safety testing for ALL the ingredients as required by the COO.
This is technically true ... but very misleading. And confusing.
ALL INGREDIENTS used MUST be tested in animals for their safety for use on skin and near eyes, because manufacturers who get a GMP (Good manufacturing practices) certification have to vouch that their products won't harm consumers when used as directed. And that means testing.
There is a huge database or two of tested and approved ingredients. If you use ingredients from the approved list, the blended product is exempt. If you have a NEW and EXCITING ingredient, you have to have it tested and submit it to the official database.
So the "cruelty-free" companies are free-loading on the testing done by others that got that ingredient into the database.
*****************
The truth about "animal testing" - everyone HATES IT! Even if you were Cruella deVille, you would hate it because it's expensive and that money could be spent on coats. It is contracted out to companies that specialize in it. Lab animal facilities are very technical, and as expensive as ICUs to build and run and the staff has to be like specialist vet techs.
First, new ingredients get testing with computer modeling because previous animal testing collected enough data to predict fairly accurately what some ingredients might do. If it flunks here, it might or might not go to more testing.
Then it's on to cell cultures and tissue blocks (they can make 3D skin with printers now!) to see what happens in live cells. This part of testing is benefiting from and contributing to cancer and transplant research, burn treatments, making replacement organs from scratch ... it's a fascinating rabbithole.
An interesting new part of the cell-level testing is testing for genetic changes after exposure to the ingredient (any changes are BAD NEWS) because running full genome sequencing has become so fast and easy.
If it fails here, only the animals that contributed to the cell cultures have lost their lives.
Last step is application to animals, to shaved patches on their skin or to naturally hairless varieties. I don't know the number of test animals per product, but it will be as FEW as possible to get a reliable test. If 10 is enough, no one is going to do 100 or even 11.
If it passes all this, it goes on to the testing paid human volunteers. I was in one of these, and you have to PROMISE to use nothing but the stuff the lab gives you - their soap, their lotions, often no makeup.
Quote:The Chinese agency that regulates drugs and medicines announced the country will cease to require animal testing for imported cosmetics beginning on May 1, 2021. Covered under the new rule are “general cosmetics” like most body care products, hair care products, and makeup. International brands are exempt from mandatory animal testing when they provide certain quality certifications and meet a handful of other requirements of the Chinese government.
China had required local testing of complete formulations of imported cosmetics for two main reasons, neither of them safety.
1 - More work for the approved testing labs and the relatives of the politicians who owned them. Yes, I'm a cynic, but the "approved" labs and the ones owned by relatives of high ranking politicians have a BIG overlap.
2 - Put pressure on the countries of origin of these cosmetics to push for adding China to the list of countries whose ingredient testing is reciprocal. Testing and approval in one of the countries means approval in all ... and to be blunt, China's reputation for good lab work and quality control is not good.
NOTE: Companies that manufactured in mainland China were able to bypass mandatory animal testing, so it was definitely not about the safety.
China removed the requirement of pre-market animal testing. They have not removed pre-market animal testing itself. One of the requirements to sell in China is to provide a "safety assessment" from the country of origin (COO) ... which includes, of course, the safety testing for ALL the ingredients as required by the COO.
Quote:For years, China has been the sole country requiring animal testing for cosmetic products, which has held back many beauty, skincare, and personal care brands from gaining cruelty-free accreditation.
This is technically true ... but very misleading. And confusing.
ALL INGREDIENTS used MUST be tested in animals for their safety for use on skin and near eyes, because manufacturers who get a GMP (Good manufacturing practices) certification have to vouch that their products won't harm consumers when used as directed. And that means testing.
There is a huge database or two of tested and approved ingredients. If you use ingredients from the approved list, the blended product is exempt. If you have a NEW and EXCITING ingredient, you have to have it tested and submit it to the official database.
So the "cruelty-free" companies are free-loading on the testing done by others that got that ingredient into the database.
*****************
The truth about "animal testing" - everyone HATES IT! Even if you were Cruella deVille, you would hate it because it's expensive and that money could be spent on coats. It is contracted out to companies that specialize in it. Lab animal facilities are very technical, and as expensive as ICUs to build and run and the staff has to be like specialist vet techs.
First, new ingredients get testing with computer modeling because previous animal testing collected enough data to predict fairly accurately what some ingredients might do. If it flunks here, it might or might not go to more testing.
Then it's on to cell cultures and tissue blocks (they can make 3D skin with printers now!) to see what happens in live cells. This part of testing is benefiting from and contributing to cancer and transplant research, burn treatments, making replacement organs from scratch ... it's a fascinating rabbithole.
An interesting new part of the cell-level testing is testing for genetic changes after exposure to the ingredient (any changes are BAD NEWS) because running full genome sequencing has become so fast and easy.
If it fails here, only the animals that contributed to the cell cultures have lost their lives.
Last step is application to animals, to shaved patches on their skin or to naturally hairless varieties. I don't know the number of test animals per product, but it will be as FEW as possible to get a reliable test. If 10 is enough, no one is going to do 100 or even 11.
If it passes all this, it goes on to the testing paid human volunteers. I was in one of these, and you have to PROMISE to use nothing but the stuff the lab gives you - their soap, their lotions, often no makeup.
