As we’ve reported before, the federal government is the driving force behind the overwhelming majority of animal testing in the U.S., even wasteful and cruel cosmetics testing.

Now, as covered in Rare, a new study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office reports that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is trying to force sunscreen companies to perform painful, ineffective, multi-million-dollar animal tests on their ingredients, even though the products have already been tested, have been sold abroad for decades, and the companies have proposed using high-tech testing alternatives instead.  The companies, including L’Oreal, have pushed back and refused to perform the needless animal tests, which means that no new sunscreen ingredients have been approved by the FDA since 2002.

As White Coat Waste Project told Rare:

“Big government is the biggest problem when it comes to animal testing. Uncle Sam… imposes stifling, irrational and burdensome regulations that force companies to pay for multi-million-dollar animal tests when they’d prefer to use alternatives that are cheaper, faster and more effective.”

WCW is helping solve this problem by supporting the Federal Accountability in Chemical Testing (FACT) Act, which would improve the government program responsible for promoting and facilitating the use of alternatives to animal testing by federal agencies and industry.

Help stop the government from forcing sunscreen companies to test on animals. Contact Congress and urge it to support the bipartisan FACT Act.