Thursday, November 29, 2012
How to be Cruelty Free Cosmetic Consumer
Student 10059850, COMS 369 lec 01
It
is time that we as consumers recognize our power to create change.
Every time we purchase a product we are essentially voting for the
corporation we would like to support. For many of us we rarely
consider our purchases as a way to create social change, but through
informed ethical shopping it is possible. Most of us make purchases
based on convenience, however, with a little consideration of the way
products are produced and tested we can save the lives of thousands
of test animals every year.
A
large amount of consumers disapprove animal testing for cosmetics, it
is widely recognized that animal testing is cruel and should be
strictly limited or phased out completely. Based on information
provided in Relax News, in 2012 Researchers
at the University of Missouri and University of Oregon found through
an online survey that consumers would be more likely to buy products
that were labelled as cruelty-free. It is clear that today's consumer
values methods for safety testing that do not put animals in danger.
Many
of us know that some cosmetic companies test on animals, but rarely
take this into consideration when purchasing cosmetic or personal
care products. This is not based on a lack of support for cruelty-
free products, it is because consumers are not properly informed on
the reality of animal testing and how to avoid these products.
Through this article, I hope to convince you that animal testing is
not the way to achieve product safety and to show how you are
powerful as a consumer and can make a impact to stop animal-based
cosmetic testing.
It
cannot be denied that there is still a need for well-researched
product testing in cosmetic and personal care products. Before you
use a product on your eyes or smear a lotion all over your body, you
place a trust in the manufacturers that the ingredients are safe,
non-toxic, and will not cause you to break out in hives. This is a
valid concern and human safety should never be sacrificed when
testing products. However, this sense of security for product safety
can be achieved without putting animals or humans at risk.
Animal
testing was implemented due to public demand for safety after
incidents where dangerous chemicals were present in cosmetics. This
carelessness of placing harmful substances into products was a
driving force in the Food, Drug and Cosmetic act of 1938. As stated
in Lush's
Fight Animal Testing campaign, this act requires
that all manufactures prove the safety of their products; it does not
require that these products be tested on animals. Animals were used
because it was believed to be an effective way to gauge safety for
humans.
This
is not the case; the fact is that animal testing is unreliable and
often irrelevant to human safety. As displayed by PETA, both the
Journal
of the American Medical Association and the British Medical Journal
have concluded numerous times that because of the biological
differences in animals these tests are not reliable for human safety.
Lush's Fight Animal Testing campaign displayed that
the vast majority of pharmaceutical drugs that seem to be safe in
animals are later disproved in human trials. In Lush's campaign they
conclude that there is no reason to assume that the chemicals that
are tested for cosmetic safety have any better odds for safety
testing, meaning that millions of animals worldwide suffer
needlessly.
According
to Lush's
Fight Animal Testing campaign there are many methods free of animal
cruelty for cosmetic safety testing that are accepted by government
regulators. PETA's research displays that not
only are safety tests on animals not effective, non-animal methods
are scientifically superior, more time efficient, and cost less. Just
a few of these alternatives to animal testing include computer
simulation, in-vitro (tissue culture techniques), and reconstructed
skin models. These alternative methods have greater relevance to
human safety since they use human cells. As stated by Lush's Fight
Animal Testing campaign, cosmetic corporations
can also rely on the approximately 20 000 established ingredients
proven safe for use in cosmetics. Today there is no longer any reason
to use animals for the safety testing in cosmetics, but because these
outdated cruel methods are still being used it is up to us as
consumers to demand a change.
In
order to end animal testing of cosmetics, consumers must make the
active choice to support companies that do not allow animal testing
and are cruelty-free. This can sometimes be challenging; companies
are aware of the public disapproval of animal testing and often
mislabel products. In order to ensure that you are purchasing
products that do not test on animals, here are some tips.
Tip
1: Know your Brands
By
becoming informed on which brands have a reputation for animal
testing and which brands are cruelty-free, you can choose to support
companies that do not risk the lives of animals to ensure safety.
Organizations
such as PETA, offer extensive product lists that display which brands
test on animals, which do not, and those who are striving to become
cruelty-free. PETA offers tools such as “Caring Consumers”
located on their website where you can search by brand or product to
see if it has been tested on animals. There is even an app available
called Be Nice to Bunnies (“BNB”) where PETA's list and search
function are available on your smart phone.
Tip
2: Look for the Cruelty-Free logo
These
logos help consumers shop with the intention to only support
companies who do not harm animals in making or testing their
products. Both PETA and Leaping Bunny offer product certification for
cruel free products. According to GEARI these logos represent that
the product has no animal ingredients, ingredients are not tested on
animals and the final product is not tested on animals. These logos
symbolize the highest standard for the ethical treatment of animals.
Other logos may be used but they can be deceiving and not adhere to
all of the cruelty free criteria. As explained by Joonghwa
Lee in 2012, "Because there is no legal standard for what is and
isn't cruelty-free, consumers are vulnerable to deceptive
advertising".
Being
a cruel free consumer will allow your dollar votes to support ethical
cosmetic and personal care corporations and decrease demand for those
brands who choose to test on animals. Unfortunately, there is a long
list of products still tested on animals and brands who use this
methods of testing tend to hold large sectors of the market. This is
why we must take action as consumers. By making small changes and
simply being aware of animal testing we can make sure that animals
will no longer suffer needlessly for cosmetic testing.
Feel
strongly about this issue? Want to do more? Sign this pledge to ban
animal testing for cosmetics
For
more information
RELAXNEWS. (2012,
April 4). "Cruelty-free" cosmetics: are you being tricked?.
her World Plus . Retrieved November 28, 2012, from
http://otherworldly/beauty/updates/beauty-updates-cruelty-free-cosmetics-are-you-being-tricked
Alternatives to
Animal Testing | PETA.org. (n.d.). People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA): The animal rights organization |
PETA.org. Retrieved November 28, 2012, from
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/alternatives-to-animal-testing.aspx
Issue. (n.d.). How
to Buy Cruelty Free: What to Look for to Know if The Products are
Cruelty Free: and Where to Go to Find Cruelty Free Products. GEARI,
Animal Rights Information Research, Animal Testing, Companies Test on
Animals, Experimentation, Alternatives, Books, Websites, Cruelty
Free, Organizations. Retrieved November 28, 2012, from
http://www.geari.org/how-to-buy-cruelty-free.html
Still Fighting
Against Animal Testing | Fighting Animal Testing. (n.d.). Fighting
Animal Testing | Fighting Animal Testing. Retrieved November 28,
2012, from
http://www.fightinganimaltesting.com/global-petitions/us-and-canada/
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