�60;/p>
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Parliament voted
[recently] to ban sales of all new cosmetic products tested on animals,
including makeup, shampoos and shower gels. Pending approval from the 15
European Union member nations, the legislation would immediately
prohibit cosmetics for which alternative testing exists. By January
2005, the ban also would apply to all new cosmetics using animal-tested
ingredients, even if alternative tests have not been developed. "Those
products should no longer be sold,'' said German socialist member Dagmar
Roth-Behrendt, who wrote the bill. The ban also would apply to imported
products. The 8,000 animal-tested cosmetic ingredients already on the
market would not be affected. The 626-member European Union assembly
meeting in Strasbourg, France, easily approved about 30 amendments to
strengthen EU rules on cosmetics. The Parliament also passed an
amendment to label animal-tested products rather than those using
alternative methods such as clinical cell or bacterial testing. The
European Parliament and the European Commission have been wrangling over
the issue since they postponed a 1998 plan to ban animal-tested products
because companies
lacked alternative methods. The only EU countries that ban cosmetic
animal testing are Britain, Austria and the Netherlands. Most of
Europe's cosmetic testing is done in France and Italy.
The European cosmetic industry, with annual sales around
$39 billion, has opposed the ban, arguing that they still do not have
many alternatives to animal testing. The legislation goes the 15 EU
governments for consideration and return to the Parliament for a final
vote.
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