Viktorija Gončarova, Danguolė Grūnovienė
Abstract
Testing on animals remains one of the most brutal and inhumane methods of testing cosmetic products or ingredients in nowadays world, even in highly developed countries. Countless number of animals, mostly rabbits mice and rats are used in various testing of cosmetics, personal hygiene products, household products, chemical substances and medications in order to check their safety for usage. Reactions of each form of life to all these products differ. Therefore, it is not easy to apply data gathered from animal testing in situations related to impact of products on the human body. Testing chemical substances on animals does not satisfy human needs and newly discovered alternatives suggest more advanced methods in which animals are not used. The question arises whether cosmetics testing on animals is efficient way to investigate the impact of cosmetic production on human body. What is more, can it be stated that taking into account physiology of animals tested the research results will be applicable to humans? More and more countries decide to ban cosmetic products testing on animals. The aim of this research is to reveal the opinion of Lithuanian and Latvian consumers on animal testing as well as using animal derived ingredients in cosmetics industry. The results of the research show that residents of Lithuania and Latvia do not support testing on animals and prefer alternative methods. It must be noted, however, that the surveyed respondents had little knowledge of testing and its impact on animals.
Keyword(s): cosmetic products; experiments with animals; animal derived ingredients.
DOI: 10.5200/sm-hs.2015.093
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