The Body Shop Seeks Global End To Animal Testing Through UN Petition
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
The L'Oreal company and Cruelty Free International are working to drum up 8m signatures on a petition to the UN, with the goal of spurring an international pact banning cosmetic animal testing across UN member states. If a treaty were to emerge, getting the US on board without FDA support – which seems unlikely based on recent remarks from the agency's Linda Katz – could be exceedingly difficult.
Long-time cruelty-free proponent The Body Shop seeks an international convention banning cosmetic animal testing "everywhere and forever," aiming to get 8m signatures on a petition to the United Nations.
The L'Oreal S.A. company, which may be changing ownership in the near future, has teamed with NGO Cruelty Free International to drum up support around the world.
The campaign builds on efforts initiated by the two in the late 1980s, which helped pave the way for the European Union's ban on animal-tested cosmetics and ingredients "and triggered significant progress across the Asia Pacific region," according to their June 1 release.
Despite such developments, CFI estimates that roughly 500,000 animals are still used in cosmetics testing annually.
"The Body Shop passionately believes that no animal should be harmed in the name of cosmetics and that animal testing on products and ingredients is outdated, cruel and unnecessary," says The Body Shop's Jessie Macneil-Brown, senior manager of international campaigns and corporate responsibility.
"This is why The Body Shop and Cruelty Free International have partnered to deliver the largest and most ambitious campaign ever to seek a global ban on the use of animals to test cosmetic products and ingredients," she adds.
Interested persons can sign the groups' petition online or at any of The Body Shop's 3,000 stores worldwide and can help raise awareness in the social media sphere by using the hashtag #ForeverAgainstAnimalTesting.
"If you're relying on a method that's not validated, you may have a problem" if safety concerns arise about a product, Katz said, signaling that FDA may not be as confident as The Body Shop in the range of alternative test methods available to industry at present.
The goal is to spur the UN to lay the groundwork for an international treaty, which would then require signatures from member states and ratification at the national level. Ideally, that would result in "enforceable and enforced harmonized rules ending the use of animals in cosmetics testing" across participating countries, The Body Shop and CFI suggest.
According to the petition organizers, alternative methods are available to replace animal tests wholesale without compromising innovation or causing significant disruptions to cosmetics businesses.
That is not a view shared by all of The Body Shop's peers in the industry. What's certain is that even if they exist in early development stages, alternative testing models for a number of critical endpoints have yet to be validated and accepted by regulatory bodies. (Also see "SEURAT-1 Promising, But Still No Non-Animal Systemic-Toxicity Solution" - HBW Insight, 15 Dec, 2015.)
FDA's Linda Katz, director of the Office of Cosmetics and Colors, recognized this fact at the Independent Cosmetic Manufacturers and Distributors' May 18 regulatory workshop in New York.
Asked by the Rose Sheet about FDA's outlook on the Humane Cosmetics Act, which US lawmakers have indicated will be reintroduced for consideration in the 115th Congress, and whether FDA is comfortable with cosmetics companies using unvalidated testing strategies to substantiate product/ingredient safety, Katz chose her words carefully.
"Let me get to the question circuitously," she said. "All we say [at FDA] is that products must be safe to be marketed, but there's no specification as to what you must do to show that they're safe."
Katz noted that cosmetics companies currently can take various approaches, availing themselves of published safety information, clinical data, animal testing or non-animal methods that they believe adequately demonstrate safety.
"We allow you the option to do whatever you feel is appropriate, provided that you can show us that what you've done is appropriate," she explained.
"Remember though," she went on, "if you're relying on something and there is a problem, someone's going to come and ask what you relied on to show that your product and your ingredient were safe. If you're relying on a method that's not validated, you may have a problem," she said.
OTC Drug Issues
Katz also pointed out that some products, such as sunscreens, are regulated as cosmetics in Europe and other markets, but are regulated as OTC drugs in the US.
"In the OTC world you have to do animal testing," she said, acknowledging that the requirement has created challenges for manufacturers who do business in markets abroad that classify their products as cosmetics and prohibit animal testing.
"The only way you can get around not doing the animal testing for an OTC product [stateside] is having a validated alternative method." While industry is working to accelerate the development, validation and regulatory acceptance of alternative methods, "unfortunately it's not often as easy as that because a lot of the methods are really difficult to validate and in some cases you really do need animals," Katz said.
If the UN were to initiate proceedings for an international pact on cosmetic animal testing, getting the US's signature and congressional support toward ratification could be exceedingly difficult without FDA's backing.
The Humane Cosmetics Act, which would ban cosmetic animal testing in the states and the marketing of cosmetics tested on animals anywhere in the world, could face similar challenges. (Also see "US Humane Cosmetics Act Expected Soon, House Reps Say" - HBW Insight, 17 May, 2017.)
The Body Shop may have another motive for the campaign and its timing – self-promotion at a time when L'Oreal reportedly is entertaining bids from potential acquirers. L'Oreal announced in February that it was reviewing strategic options for the company. (Also see "L’Oreal May Prune Body Shop While Lauder ‘Pivots’ In New Beauty Climate" - HBW Insight, 14 Feb, 2017.)