Senate Bill S4780

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S4780

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the public health law, in relation
to prohibiting animal irritancy tests for cosmetics

 PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL :  To prohibit cosmetic manufacturers
and cosmetic ingredient suppliers from conducting any test which
involves the placing of a cosmetic, or cosmetic ingredient produced
solely for use in cosmetics, in an animal's eye or on an animal's skin
to measure its irritancy effects.

 SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS :  Adds a new section 505-b to the
public health law to: (1) Prohibit the testing of cosmetic products in
an animal's eye or on its skin to measure its irritating effects;

(2) Prohibit the testing of cosmetic ingredients in an animal's eye or
on its skin to measure its irritating effects if such ingredient was
produced solely for use as a cosmetic.

(3) Prohibit the sale of cosmetic products tested in an animal's eye
or on its skin to measure its irritating effects.

In addition, the bill provides definitions for the following terms:
Animal; Cosmetic; Cosmetic manufacturer; Person

 JUSTIFICATION :  The FDA, which regulates the cosmetic industry, does
              

not require the use of animals for safety testing. Unfortunately some
manufacturers continue with this unnecessary practice. One of the most
commonly used irritancy tests, the Draize rabbit eye irritancy test,
has been criticized as unreliable, highly subjective and cruel. There
are significant differences in the anatomy and response to irritation
between rabbit eyes and human eyes. A study by Carnegie-Mellon
University scientists have found that 24 laboratories that Draize
tested the same substances reported highly variable results both
between laboratories and within the same laboratories.

Alternatives to the use of animals for eye and skin irritancy tests of
cosmetics and their ingredients are widely available and in use by
many corporations including Avon, Noxell, Revlon, Redken, Paul
Mitchell, Faberge and Mary Kay.

Some of the alternative tests used include the Neutral. Red Bioassay,
a test using human cell cultures; the CAM test, which uses the
membrane of fertilized chicken eggs; the Eyetex system which uses a
compound of proteins that resembles the composition of the human eye;
Skintex, similar to Eyetex, using human skin cell cultures; and
TOPXAT, a software package that uses computer simulation models.

Further, it must be emphasized that the use of animals to test for eye
and skin irritancy of cosmetic products causes excruciating pain and
suffering to animals. For example, in the Draize eye test, several
rabbits are used in each test which involves keeping the rabbits in
stocks, pouring the test substance in their eyes and observing and
evaluating over a two week period the redness, swelling, hemorrhaging
and corrosion. After the test evaluation, the rabbits are either
killed or used in another test.

Given that alternative testing methods are available for cosmetic
manufacturers and ingredient suppliers, there is no justification to
allow the further use of animals for the purpose of testing the
irritancy of cosmetic products and their ingredients.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :  January 1, next succeeding the date on which it
shall have become a law.