Group Helps China's Largest University Cosmetics Science Program Move Toward Replacing Animals in Cosmetics Tests
For
Immediate Release:
November
7, 2012
Contact:
Tasgola
Bruner 202-483-7382
Norfolk, Va. -- Thanks to a $33,000 grant from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to the U.S.-based Institute for In Vitro Sciences (IIVS), scientists in China—where companies are required to pay for tests on animals in order to market cosmetics—have received training on how to use a non-animal test that can replace a crude and painful test on rabbits.
IIVS, a global leader in the advancement of non-animal test methods, held the training last week for 30 students and faculty at the Beijing Technical and Business University (BTBU), which has the largest university program in cosmetics science in China. The scientists learned how to use the Bovine Corneal Opacity and Permeability assay to replace an eye irritation test, in which chemicals are dripped into the eyes of rabbits. A photo from the training session is available here.
This is the second grant that PETA has awarded to IIVS after discovering late last year that Avon, Mary Kay, and Estée Lauder—which had been on PETA's list of companies that don't test cosmetics on animals for decades—had been secretly paying for Chinese officials to test their products on animals. The companies had not provided Chinese scientists with training in the use of the non-animal methods used in the U.S. and the European Union. As a result of IIVS's initial work, funded by PETA, China is now poised to accept its first-ever non-animal test—the 3T3 Neutral Red Uptake Phototoxicity Test.
According to Dr. Rodger Curren, president of IIVS, "Support from PETA has allowed the university to expedite the incorporation of hands-on training in non-animal (in vitro) methods to undergraduate, graduate, and faculty at BTBU. Both faculty and students are enthusiastic about the training, and planning for future sessions has already begun."
"PETA is pleased to work together with IIVS to show scientists in China how to use modern, humane, non-animal testing methods instead of poisoning animals in archaic tests," said PETA Senior Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "This is the first step toward the end of cosmetics tests on animals in China."
For more information, please visit PETA.org.