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Human skin to replace animal tests

It is the first complete replacement for animal testing.
[The] team grows the skin layers on collagen, using skin cells called keratinocytes left-over from breast surgery. The team can test the safety of cosmetics by simply smothering the skin in the product. They can then check the proportion of cells that have been killed off. "To be validated we had to show that we could reproduce results as effectively as animal tests," says Patricia Pineau, scientific director at L'Oréal. Independent tests showed that in some cases Episkin was able to predict more accurately how a person would react to products than animal tests, she says.
Chris Flower of the Cosmetic Toiletry and Perfumery Association in London also welcomes the move. "The fact that it has taken 20 years of research to come to this point shows just how difficult it is to replace animal testing," he says. "Now it has been validated it can potentially be applied, not only to testing new shampoos and cosmetics, but more widely, in medical research."
source:new scientist

Comments

  • rustyjemma
    rustyjemma Posts: 113 Forumite
    I would love to think they would replace animal testing but i do doubt it! It would become an as well as test, I should imagine
  • cazrobinson
    cazrobinson Posts: 177 Forumite
    animal testing for cosmetics is such a waste of money and resources. who wants rabbits, dogs and mice being in constant pain to provide a new eyeshadow or deodorant? hurray for the use of human tissue, but again isn't it a waste of money and resources, for something so trivial. why don't they do human testing? or would they then find a link between these products and cancers?!

    animal testing for pharacuticals, however is a different matter entirely.
    What goes around - comes around
    give lots and you will always recieve lots
  • mascherano
    mascherano Posts: 649 Forumite
    rustyjemma wrote: »
    I would love to think they would replace animal testing but i do doubt it! It would become an as well as test, I should imagine
    In December 2006, the European Union introduced REACH, which calls for more than 10,000 chemicals used in cosmetics to be tested for skin irritancy by 2019. At the same time, the EU's cosmetics directive bans the use of animals in such tests from 2009.
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