Move Will Prevent Millions of Animals From Having Harsh Chemicals Dripped Into Their Eyes and Rubbed Into Their Skin 

After an extensive PETA India campaign, with help from MP Maneka Gandhi and others – the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB), which operates under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, has recommended the addition of a suitable provision under The Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, to prohibit the import of cosmetics that have been tested on animals abroad. This decision – made in the DTAB's 65^th meeting, held on 25 November 2013 – comes on the heels of recently enacted bans on the import, marketing and sale of cosmetics and their ingredients tested on animals in the European Union and Israel as well as a recent decision to eliminate animal tests for cosmetics by the Bureau of Indian Standards, which oversees standards for cosmetics. 

"We commend the DTAB for its recommendation, which is a positive step for both animals and science. Compliance with international standards can help ensure that cruel and outdated animal tests for lipstick and eye shadow become history around the globe", says PETA UK Associate Director Mimi Bekhechi. "We look forward to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare officially bringing in a marketing ban on cosmetics tested on animals abroad and hope also to see a ban on both animal testing and the marketing of household products that have been tested on animals in India in the near future." 

During cosmetics tests, harsh chemicals may be dripped into rabbits' eyes, smeared onto animals' abraded skin or forced down their throats. More than 1,200 companies around the world – including LUSH and The Body Shop as well as the Indian companies Trumount Cosmoceuticals, Future Skin, Omved Lifestyle, Shahnaz Husain and others – have joined PETA India's list of companies that use only modern and reliable non-animal tests for their products. 

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