Making chemicals safe without animal tests

The annual Lush Prize Conference (a joint project from Ethical Consumer and Lush Cosmetics) is taking place today on the theme of ‘Regulating Chemical Safety – the future for animal use’.

Many governments around the world require products and chemicals to be proven safe for use – often with the use of animals.

Although there is a general trend to move away from animal tests in the science of toxicology, new regulatory requirements and a lack of ‘validated’ non-animal alternatives means a short-term rise in animal use is being predicted by many.

Under the European ‘REACH’ regulations, there is a June 2018 deadline for safety tests to have been completed for a very long list of chemicals.

Campaigners are worried that, unless there is some concerted action, there will a big rise in animal tests in Europe in the next couple of years as companies rush to meet this deadline. 

What are campaigners doing to address this problem? Are new non-animal tests coming through fast enough? Is there some other solution we haven’t spotted yet? What about Brexit?

All these questions will be tackled at the conference by many of the leading thinkers in the field. Experts from all around the world will reflect on how chemical safety regulation where they are is affecting animals.

On Friday, the Lush Prize Awards will take place in London which will give £250,000 to 12 projects from around the world working on replacing animal testing.