Animal rights groups are cheering a move by the 27-member European Union to ban the sale of all new cosmetics containing ingredients tested on animals, effective immediately.
“This is a great opportunity for Europe to set an example of responsible innovation in cosmetics without any compromise on consumer safety,” emphasized Tonio Berg, top EU official for health and consumer issues.
Although the EU has forbidden animal testing of “finished” cosmetics since 2004, the plan ban on cosmetics containing animal ingredients initially left certain loopholes for certain tests that needed to be corrected, and met with substantial resistance from manufacturers, who claim that the ban “threatens competitiveness and comes too early because there is no alternative for specific animal tests to ensure safety of all ingredients.”
Currently, there are no such bans in place in either the United States or Asia. In the meantime, the Humane Society International said it hopes the course taken by the European Union (whose combined nations form the world’s largest economy) will soon be adopted by the global cosmetics industry.
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