PETA and other animal lovers will be happy to know that soon no testing of cosmetic or personal care products will be done on animals in the European Union. The Scientific Committee of the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods has approved five new testing methods. With this approval there is no need for testing on animals such as rabbits and mice.

Scientists also noted that these alternative testing methods are more reliable than animal tested results. In addition, the new measures will result in over 200,000 rabbits being spared death due to cosmetic testing. One of these new measures involves growing human skin in the lab and testing on that to see how the ingredient irritates the skin.

The EU’s Cosmetics Directive plans to ban the testing of cosmetic ingredients on animals starting in 2009.