Beauty With Conscience - Page 258 Vital Women's Problems Section - Page 243 Beauty With Conscience - Page 258 Beauty With Conscience - Page 260

Dermal Irritancy Test Give Us Feedback On This Subject Text Scroll This Chapter Check Out Doctor DeMarco's Recommended Health Products What You Can Do: The Lethal Dose Fifty Percent Test

The other objectionable test is The Lethal Dose Fifty Percent Test or LD-50. LD-50 refers to the amount of a substance which when administered in a single dose (this can be through food, stomach tube, injection, inhalation or direct application to the skin) will kill 50 percent of a test group of animals within a specified time. The lower the LD-50, the more toxic the substance. A standard LD-50 test involves three groups of ten or more animals, one group for each dose level. All surviving animals are killed and autopsied.

Common signs of poisoning include moaning and crying out, tears, diarrhea, discharge, bleeding from the eyes or mouth and convulsions.

Even with large numbers of animals being tested, there are considerable variations in test results, due to the influence of factors such as the type of animal species used, age, sex, diet and cage conditions, etc.

"Results of the LD-50 vary dramatically from laboratory to laboratory, between strain, age, sex, and species of animals, and extrapolation to humans is questionable," says Dr. Gil Langley in the New Scientist magazine in 1985.

A report from the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment mentions that, "The results of the LD-50 vary greatly both among and within species... and are difficult to extrapolate to humans because there are so many mechanisms by which death can occur." However, the report does go on to conclude that animal testing, although imperfect, is still useful.

"As a board-certified emergency medicine physician who has been practising for ten years," claims American physician Dr. Neill S. Barber, "I have never found data from LD-50 or eye irritancy test on animals to be useful in treating patients. I would not rely on these data to treat patients and I know of no physician who does."

Others maintain that the LD-50 test and the Draize test are misleading to the consumer. They are used to issue certificates of safety to household products and cosmetics, which in the U.S. still cause 200,000 hospital recorded poisonings every year.

Chronic toxicity tests are carried out on rabbits and dogs, typically beagles, to see if small amounts of the test substance become toxic over long-term exposure. The substance is mixed with food or administered through a stomach tube. The test continues for two years, and afterwards the remaining animals are killed and examined.

As mentioned before, many alternative testing methods already exist which do not include the use of live animals, and at the same time do not compromise safety. These include tissue and cell cultures, bacterial and protozoal studies, bird embryos and eggs, mathematical and computer models and various assay techniques.

Some companies eliminate the need for animal testing by using natural food ingredients such as avocado and almond oil. Other ingredients are deemed to be safe because they have been on the market for 20 or 30 years and their safety record is well established.

Beauty Without Cruelty in Britain was one of the first companies to devote itself to cruelty free products made from natural ingredients. This company reports no incidence of injury or death in their 27-year history.

Approximately 200,000 animals are used for product testing in Canada. Fifteen of the 23 commercial lab facilities in Canada are located in the province of Ontario. However, it is important to remember that many Canadian companies are involved in animal testing, but it is performed in U.S. labs.

In Ontario, MPP Bill Wildman had introduced Bill 190 in order "to prohibit the use of animals in non-medical experimentation involving the Draize Eye Irritancy Test or the Classical LD-50 Acute Toxicity Test and similar tests." However, in spite of growing public support, the bill is unlikely to pass.

Eight states in the U.S. have legislation pending that would limit or ban animal testing of products.

The Food and Drug Administration in the U. S. has recently announced that it was assembling information to eliminate duplicative testing. This would allow cosmetic companies to find out an ingredient's safety history without repeating all the tests.

Beauty With Conscience - Page 258 Vital Women's Problems Section - Page 243 Beauty With Conscience - Page 258 Beauty With Conscience - Page 260


Home

Doctor DeMarco Recommended Products
BioMat: Heal And Cleanse Your Body With Long Wave Infrared Rays
Aroma Spa: Advanced Energy Medicine
The Q2 B.E.F.E. Water Energy System: Advanced Technology for An Advancing World.
Doctor DeMarco Recommended Products
The Accuciser: The Most Efficient Exercise Device for Restoring Circulation of Lymph and Blood.
G-Force 4 Rebounder: The World's Best Low-Impact Exercise to strengthen bones, muscles, organs, skin, & tissues.
Physician's Choice Unit For Water Filtration: Water, the essence of life and the basis of good health.
Photon-Genie: The Most Advanced and Effective Vibrational Energy Technology Available.


Lose weight – diet and exercise plans
Lose weight – diet and exercise plans