Animal Testing

Generally speaking I like to research the products that I buy. Many people do this with TVs and other electronics; ensuring that every feature important to them is available. I also do this with the food and drink that I buy. I try to avoid highly processed foods with ingredients that I can’t pronounce. Why is it that people will spend more time researching which TV to buy than the food they eat or the products they put on their bodies? Everyone has to eat. Over time more money will be spent on food than that TV, but it baffles me to just assume anything in a grocery store is safe for consumption or use?

Recently, I have been studying toxicology and learned quite a bit of new information regarding toxic agents; their affect on the body and testing methods. As a vegan, I have difficulty dealing with the use of animals for human research and testing. Whether it be rodent, rabbit, dog, or ape I feel that there should be better alternatives than to warrant such actions. I understand there was a less technological time when research was needed in order to gain knowledge on how the body functioned. Technology has advanced and research has now shown that these animal tests are costly and do not give an accurate depiction of what happens in a human body.

As a society we continue to create more consumables that we ingest, inhale, and apply to our bodies. We are making ourselves sick by introducing unnatural agents into our bodies. A typical American can go through a daily routine that incorporates many of these consumer products. Toothpaste, hair product, skin lotion, facial products, and perfume can all be absorbed into the body. Many of these are filled with heavy metals. Compounded with the food and air that is taken in daily and there are a multitude of variables humans are exposed to that an animal’s system cannot replicate with certainty. We are bombarded with toxins regularly which in turn can cause impairment and dysfunction in the cardiovascular, reproductive, and immune systems to name a few. Again, we are giving ourselves these illnesses that drugs are now developed to assist with and tested on animals to determine dosage and side effects. The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep is a website that allows one to search their database of consumer products for ingredients, allergens, and toxicity levels. A hazard score is also provided.

Using alternative methods such as In-Vitro or computer based In-Silico are more humane and accurate representations of how the human body and its systems will react to toxins and the pharmaceuticals created for treatment. Computer modeling produces faster simulations and can be used by many. Harvard has developed “organs-on-chips” to mimic human organs and functions and can replicate responses to drugs, disease, and human physiology better than animal testing. Options such as one time micro-dosing to human volunteers has also been considered. These are a few of the viable options that show there is no reason to continue animal testing for any purpose. I believe that humans are responsible for many of the illnesses that they develop and animals should not have to suffer for it.