8/10/10
Nearly 90,000 lab mice are used to test batches of Botox each year in the European Union.
(While the media catching up with the news is a good thing, in 2003 a break-in by the ALF at Wickham Laboratories in Hampshire revealed the deaths of around 80,000 animals to test Botox for Ipsen Biopharm. See 'Botox & Dead Bodies'.)
Photo: China Photos/Getty Images
Botox
injections are making it more difficult to smile than ever before, thanks
to statistics recently published by the European Commission (EC) regarding
the use of animal experimentation.
Nearly 90,000 lab mice are used each year in the European Union alone to
test batches of Botox before they can be used on humans, according to the
journal Nature. That number has increased from 33,000 mice in 2005.
The
EC report singled out Botox testing as a major reason that animal experimentation
persists at sustained levels in the EU despite the fact that it has been
reduced in many other fields. Currently, every single batch of Botox must
be safety tested on mice before it can be injected into the face of a human.
Overall, the report indicated that over 12 million animals are tested on
for scientific purposes in the EU each year, the largest proportion of which
are research animals used in fundamental biology studies. More than two
thirds of the animals were used by five of the EU's member states —
France, the UK, Germany, Spain and Italy.
The report estimated that as many as 9 million more animals may be used
for research by 2018. The primary reason for the increase is the recent
passage of the EU's REACH legislation (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization
and Restriction of Chemical substances), which is a new EC regulation on
chemicals and their safe use.
Of course, the regulations apply to humans, not to research animals. Companies
working to meet the new safety standards are expected to increase their
use of animal experimentation as a result.
Transgenic mice are among the animals most likely to see an increased work
load. The number of mice used has increased by more than 690,000 between
2005 and 2008 for all experimental purposes. Rats and rabbits are also common
research animals, though their use has decreased since 2005 in a number
of key research fields, such as with skin and eye irritation tests. The
report noted that alternative methods of toxicity testing can be credited
for the reduction.
No great apes are used for animal experimentation in the EU in accordance
with recognized law, but monkeys are still allowed.
Read Botox & Dead Bodies by Keith Mann here
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