Is It Illegal To Test On Animals In The Us

Animal Testing & Cosmetics

Consumers and manufacturers sometimes ask near the use of animals for testing cosmetics. The post-obit information addresses the legal requirement for corrective safety and FDA policy on developing alternative methods.

FDA is responsible for assuring that cosmetics are prophylactic and properly labeled. This mission is accomplished through enforcement of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), related statutes, and regulations promulgated nether these laws.

The FD&C Act does not specifically require the apply of animals in testing cosmetics for safety, nor does the Act subject cosmetics to FDA premarket approval. All the same, the agency has consistently brash cosmetic manufacturers to utilize whatever testing is appropriate and constructive for substantiating the safe of their products. It remains the responsibility of the manufacturer to substantiate the safety of both ingredients and finished cosmetic products prior to marketing.

Animal testing by manufacturers seeking to market place new products may be used to institute production safe. In some cases, after considering bachelor alternatives, companies may determine that animal testing is necessary to assure the rubber of a product or ingredient. FDA supports and adheres to the provisions of applicable laws, regulations, and policies governing animal testing, including the Animal Welfare Act and the Public Health Service Policy of Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Moreover, in all cases where brute testing is used, FDA advocates that inquiry and testing derive the maximum amount of useful scientific information from the minimum number of animals and employ the nearly humane methods available within the limits of scientific capability.

We besides believe that prior to use of animals, consideration should be given to the utilise of scientifically valid alternative methods to whole-animal testing. In 1997, FDA joined with thirteen other Federal agencies in forming the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM). ICCVAM and its supporting center, the National Toxicology Program Interagency Heart for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM), coordinate the evolution, validation, acceptance, and harmonization of alternative toxicological test methods throughout the U.S. Federal Authorities. To larn more than, visit the ICCVAM and NICEATM websites.

FDA supports the development and utilize of alternatives to whole-beast testing besides as adherence to the most humane methods available inside the limits of scientific capability when animals are used for testing the safety of cosmetic products. We volition continue to be a stiff abet of methodologies for the refinement, reduction, and replacement of fauna tests with alternative methodologies that practice not employ the utilize of animals.

More Resource from FDA:

"Cruelty Free-Not Tested on Animals" Label Claims
FDA Authority Over Cosmetics

Resources from Other U.S. Government Agencies:

Animal Welfare Act
National Toxicology Program--Interagency Coordinating Commission on the Validation of Alternative Exam Methods (NTP-ICCVAM)
Public Health Service Policy on Humane Intendance and Utilize of Laboratory Animals

Resources from the International Cooperation on Cosmetics Regulation (ICCR):

ICCR reports on nanotechnology, trace contaminants, safety assessment, and alternatives to animal testing: By clicking on this link, yous will be leaving the FDA.GOV website and going to the ICCR website, where you will find the reports on these topics.