Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

The FDA which regulates the safety of food and other consumer products, does not require the use of animal experiments or testing to make cosmetics safe for the public use. This government agency advocates maximum safety and efficiency of products geared towards consumers yet also advocates for the safety of animals. This means that while they want products to be safe for humans, they do not necessarily believe that animal testing is the best way to go. The FDA has stated that scientific methods and alternatives should be used for testing, as opposed to animals.

"We will continue to be a strong advocate of methodologies for the refinement, reduction, and replacement of animal tests with alternative methodologies that do not employ the use of animals." - FDA

The purpose for this post is to educate people who have misconceptions about cosmetic testing for animals. People believe that animal testing for cosmetic testing is the only way for consumer safety, and even a government agency opposes that by stating that they are on the most ethical and humane side, by keeping animals out of laboratory experiments. New methods and alternatives are available, and should be used in place of animal testing.

Citations Review

The citations review lesson in class on Wednesday was really helpful. I feel like it's important to be able to correctly cite sources so that you are giving credit to the source you pulled your information from. The majority of the information I am finding with regards to cosmetic testing on animals, is in books I have checked out from the library, as well as online journal entries. My statistics and facts I've been able to find from a lot of government sources like the FDA. Overall, I am posting blogs slowly but trying to make the posts I make meaningful and organized so that my paper is neat and organized.

General Facts on Cosmetic Testing

Every year millions of animals are used for cosmetic testing to see how effective and safe these products are for human use. The companies who do this claim that is is absolutely necessary to test on animals for product safety yet the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not require this type of testing.

The following is a short summary of real facts related to animal testing:

• 1.4 million animals and more are counted by the USDA to be used in experiments that are painful
• Most of the animals are used in just one experiment, but there are few who are used for many experiments
• Animals live in poor conditions and are often shoved in small spaces with many others while they are waiting to be experimented on
• U.S. laws do not require scientists to take note of how many animals are being tested, so it is likely the number for animal testing is much higher
• There are alternative methods besides animal testing which are CHEAPER

Brand New

I just created my blog, it took me forever to figure out how to work this. I don't have a topic for my paper yet, but I intend on having one by tomorrow in the evening. Check back tomorrow night to see a post for my topic.