Mexico City, (September 03, 2021).- Unanimously, the Senate of the Republic approved reforms to the General Health Law, in order to prohibit experiments with animals in the cosmetic industry.
The 103 legislators present endorsed this reform, which, according to a score of speakers on the issue, seeks to end the cruelty, violence, and torture to which rats and other animals are subjected, including pigs, rabbits, monkeys and other specimens, to produce cosmetics for this industry that generates millions of dollars annually
The session chaired by Olga Sánchez Cordero was followed, from the plenary session by her alternate, Jesusa Rodríguez, who, in the last three years, held the seat of the then head of the Interior and strongly promoted the initiative with this reform, that yesterday was turned over to the federal executive for enactment.
Photos of pets were placed on the seats and a score of speakers highlighted the importance of this legal change, in a context of 115 million animals killed slowly and painfully around the world while they are used to test creams, perfumes, and other beauty products.
“This is a historic day for these living beings who have no voice, but who must be treated with dignity,” stressed the coordinator of Morena, Ricardo Monreal, author of the initiative.
Monreal stressed that this modification is very important because it contains not only the prohibition for the use of live animals, in the cosmetics industry, experiments, or any other form of animal cruelty, but also requires that the labeling of the articles that are produced and manufactured with the use of animals can be insured by the authority and also close the commercial establishments that are dedicated to the sale of articles made with animals.
Sylvana Beltrones, a PRI senator, highlighted: it is not a secret that behind the manufacture of a large part of soaps, facial creams, body creams, shampoos, makeup, there is a great deal of animal abuse.
Millions of animals die cruelly from the tests, “they are forced to consume substances that damage their health and face a cruel death. The cosmetic industry in Mexico sells 10 billion dollars annually ”.
Movimiento Ciudadano senator, Verónica Delgadillo, highlighted: “115 million monkeys, puppies, rabbits, mice, and countless animals are subjected to torture practices because they do not have anesthesia or analgesics.”
The reforms establish that cosmetic products may not be manufactured, imported, or marketed when in their final formulation they mediate or have been tested on animals, and contain ingredients or combinations of these that are or have been tested.
It also contains penalties of two to seven years in prison and a fine equivalent to 200 to 2,000 times the value of the Unit of Measurement and Update, whoever hires, authorizes, conducts, participates, or develops cosmetic tests on animals.
It provides that, in order to guarantee the consumer’s right to information, the labeling of all commercialized cosmetic products may indicate that these types of tests have not been carried out in their manufacture.
Senator Raúl Bolaños-Cacho Cué, from PVEM, emphasized that animal welfare and bioethics are essential topics of Mexican legislation; in this case, he said, the aim is to guarantee that these living beings do not suffer or die in laboratories due to cosmetic tests.
The PRI senator Nuvia Mayorga specified: “Worldwide 115 million around the world are used to experiment with beauty products. Unfortunately in Latin America, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina are among the countries that top the list of experimentation. It is estimated 5 million victims of these practices, who are burned, mutilated, poisoned and gassed in many of the cases ”.
In Mexico, Mayorga stressed, the most used are mice, rabbits, and those whose, to experiment on internal affectations and the damage to the skin that could cause a person. In other countries, he said, rats, birds, fish, and even pigs are used for laboratory testing.
The initiative was sent to the Federal Executive for the purposes of article 72 of the Constitution.
Source: La jornada maya
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