[About animal experiments for a face without wrinkles].

Botulinum toxin, a nervous poison produced by bacteria, is increasingly being used - besides its medical application - as a beauty product for smoothing facial wrinkles. It is unknown in public that each batch of the toxin has to undergo a quality control before marketing. The test used is a LD50 test using mice that is very animal consuming and causes extreme suffering. Although several alternative methods exist, none of these are have yet been adopted by the European pharmacopoeia. Consumers in the EU do not accept animal experiments for cosmetic purposes. However, Botulinum toxin does not fall under the definition of a "cosmetic product" and therefore the bans on animal experiments laid down in the EU Cosmetic Directive do not apply. Therefore on a short term scale, only the voluntarily renouncement of the use of this toxin as an anti-wrinkling agent can prevent the suffering and death of animals for a beauty product.