Friday, April 20, 2007

Annotation #1

Article: Product Testing: toxic and tragic

There are many different test performed on animals, including rats, Guinea pig and rabbits. The first one is the acute toxicity test where the chemical or product is forced down the animals throat at high doses and seeing what the reaction is. The second test is the Lethal dose 50% test where they force feed numerous animals till 50% of the animals die. The 3rd test is the Draize eye and skin corrosion test which drips substances into the animals eye or shaved head, which has been proved to be severely inaccurate, like the previous 2 tests. Even though these tests are inaccurate they are still performed. For testing products the Food and Drug Administration "urges cosmetic manufacturers to conduct whatever tests are appropriate to establish that their cosmetics are safe... and does not specifically mandate animal testing for cosmetic safety." So they are not forbidding the inhumane testing of these little animals. There are much more accurate tests out there being developed. Companies could use cell and tissue cultures that mimicks the human skin, or structure activiity relation ship models.

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