Advances in Alternative Methods of Animal Experiments for Cosmetic Dermal Toxicity

Alternative Methods for Animal Testing of Cosmetic Dermal Toxicity Progress Date: 2015-05-06 10:34

Cosmetics are products that people use every day. They must have stability, safety, efficacy and usability. Safety is an indispensable prerequisite. In order to ensure the safety of cosmetics, it is generally necessary to carry out toxicity and safety appraisal of chemical raw materials and products, and the traditional toxicity identification is generally conducted using experimental animals. Experimental animals have made important contributions to biological science and cosmetics scientific research. However, animal experiments, after all, involve damaging the welfare of animals and letting them suffer certain pains and sacrifices. Nowadays, animal protection laws and humanitarianism are advocated globally, and animal experiments in toxicological tests for reducing and prohibiting chemicals and consumer products have gradually become a consensus. The European Union first introduced regulations prohibiting and restricting animal experiments, such as the EU's first cosmetic legislation EC 1223/2009, the European Union's "Regulations on Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals" (REACH Regulation), and Animal Regulations for Scientific Experiments. 2010/65/EU, etc., also prohibits the sale and import of cosmetics and raw materials that have undergone animal experiments. Subsequently, economies such as Eastern Europe, Japan and South Korea, ASEAN, and India also followed the trend to follow detection standards and technological changes.

Faced with this situation, how should China's daily chemical enterprises respond well to avoid trade barriers and obtain competitive advantages in the market? Animal alternative technology is a new direction that companies can consider. Dr. Cheng Shujun of Sun Yat-Sen University stated that the standardized alternative experiment method has been widely used in the toxicological testing of chemicals, cosmetics, household goods and medical products. Since the first alternative standard was accepted by OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) in 2004, OECD ISO, ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and other standards organizations have issued more than 20 alternative method test guidelines. More than 60 alternatives have been validated and approved by the EURL-ECVAM (European Alternative Method Verification Center) and the ICCVAM (United States Inter- Departmental Alternative Methods Coordination Committee). These standardized test methods cover areas such as cytotoxicity, skin irritation/corrosion, eye irritation/corrosion, skin sensitization, and genotoxicity, and complete and constitute a technical standard system for ensuring the environmental, health, and safety of consumer products.

Generally speaking, the raw materials used by cosmetics manufacturers should be derived from the "Chinese name list of international cosmetics raw materials standard" (except for new raw materials), but there may be physical and (or) chemical interactions in the production process due to the compounding of raw materials. And bring new problems. In the aspect of toxicity testing, it is divided into two kinds of programs, one is to detect cosmetics raw materials, and the other is to test cosmetics. The safety of raw materials is the guarantee of the safety of finished cosmetic products. The safety testing of new materials requires special attention. SGS recommends daily chemical companies in addition to animal experiments, but also consider the combination of such as OECD 439 artificial skin model stimulation test, OECD 437 corneal corneal test and cytotoxicity test and other in vitro alternative test program for integrated research of raw materials and product safety verification.