The Ugly Truty About Botox
What is Botox Cosmetic?
Allergan, Inc. is the manufacturer of Botox Cosmetic. Since Botox Cosmetic received FDA approval in 200_
Botox Cosmetic is FDA approved for injection into the forehead area of plastic surgery patients. Since a component of Botox Cosmetic is botulism, the injection will paralyze the muscles in the forehead preventing lines from forming. Of course, it also prevents the forehead from moving, but the absence of wrinkles is the goal.
What does Paralyzing Foreheads have to do with Animal Rights?
In its product sheet filed with the FDA, Allergan describes the testing it performed on animals. To determine side effects, Botox was injected into mice and rabbits. The rabbits were pregnant and the point of the testing was to determine the effects on the baby bunnies. The botulism component of Botox Cosmetic acts on the neurotransmitters for muscles. The rabbit’s muscles slowly paralyzed until their diaphragms refused to move, suffocating the rabbits. During the three to four days prior to death, the rabbits experienced severe headaches, loss of vision and muscles spasms. After they died, the babies were removed from their mothers and dissected. There was evidence of birth defects associated with Botox Cosmetic. The rabbits and their babies slowly suffocated so Allergan could tell pregnant women it was probably not advisable to inject Botox Cosmetic into their foreheads.
Mice were subjected to similar testing. Like the rabbits, the mice slowly suffocated over two or three days. However, mice are more important to Allergan than mere product safety testing. Without suffocating, suffering and dying mice, there is no Botox Cosmetic.
Mice are the key to potency testing for Botox Cosmetic. Since it is 2007 one would think that test tubes, centrifuges and computers test a product’s potency. Botox Cosmetic relies on the suffering and suffocation of mice. Prior to shipment, each unit of Botox Cosmetic must pass the LD50 test. To perform the LD50 test, Botox Cosmetic is injected into100 mice. The product is sellable when 51 die. It takes 3 or 4 days for the mice to die and the process of dying is excruciating. Their muscles paralyze, they develop severe headaches, their vision becomes impaired and eventually they suffocate as their diaphragm contracts. Each treatment uses 20 to 60 units of Botox Cosmetic. So 2000 to 6000 mice suffer and die so a human’s forehead can be paralyzed for a few months.
Botox is the Best Selling Cosmetic Procedure
The ABC morning television show, Good Morning America recently aired a story extolling the virtues of Botox Cosmetic for men. According to the piece, men are starting to use Botox to gain a more youthful appearance. Entertainer Donnie Osmond even sang the virtues of Botox. The dangers of shooting botulism into human faces were never discussed and of course the suffering and death of thousands of mice was ignored.
It turns out that Botox is the best selling cosmetic procedure in the
How can you Help Stop LD50 Potency Testing?
Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is trying to raise awareness of the suffering and death caused by Botox Cosmetic. Dr Marin Stephens, HSUS vice president issued a report proposing alternatives to the LD50 test. Join the HSUS campaign to stop LD50 potency testing. The federal agency that oversees animal testing is studying alternatives to Allergan’s LD50 potency testing.
Write a letter to Allergan, Inc. and demand that it develop alternative potency testing. Discuss the LD50 potency testing with your Dermatologist or Plastic Surgeon. Finally, write a letter to the editor of your newspaper and favorite magazines alerting their readers about the suffering and death associated with Botox Cosmetic.