The EU's Cosmetics Directive ordered the phasing out of animal testing in personal and beauty products in September 2004 when a ban on animal testing of finished cosmetic products first came into force. Since March 2009 a ban on the marketing of most cosmetic products and their ingredients, which have been tested on animals, has also been in place in the EU. However, the deadline for a full marketing ban has been pushed back to March 2013 due to the difficulty of developing tests to identify the five most complex human health effects, such as repeated dose toxicity, skin sensitisation, carcinogenicity, reproductive toxicity and toxicokinetics. While full replacement alternative methods are currendy available for basic tests such as skin corrosivity and irritation, dermal absorption and phototoxicity, so far those for acute toxicity, eye irritation and mutagenicity/genotoxicity are only covered by partial replacement methods.
展开▼
