Botox is the abbreviated name for Botulinum Toxin (BT).

Botulinum toxin is the toxic compound produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. (The names Botox and Dysport are trade names). It is possibly the most acutely toxic substance known to man; and with a lethal dose of about 200-300 pg/kg, means that somewhat over a hundred grams could kill every human living on the earth. Botulin toxin has always been considered an inferior agent for chemical warfare since it degrades rapidly on exposure to air, and therefore an area attacked with the toxic aerosol would be safe to enter within a day or so.

Government Profiting

The government is directly profiting from the sale of animal-tested botulinum toxin, by manufacturing a botox-type product, Dysport, at its Health Protection Agency facilities at Porton Down, Wiltshire. The HPA receives a royalty running into millions of pounds every year from this product.

There has been a boom in the use of Botox for anti-wrinkle treatments both here and in the US and a legal loophole in the UK means products such as Botox are not covered by the ban on animal testing for cosmetic products because they were initially developed as medicines.

Botox is tested at Wickham Laboratories using the LD-50 test for Ipsen, who have publically stated that a proportion of their Botox is used for cosmetic purposes.

Side Effects

Botox does have side effects which can include droopy eyes, headaches, drooling, flu, respiratory problems, and even temporary paralysis.

Lethal Dose 50 Test

The LD50 test was developed in 1927 and involves dosing several groups of animals with a substance either by mouth, injection, skin absorption or inhalation. Animals used have included mice, rats, rabbits, cats, dogs, monkeys, fish and birds, with the end-point of the assay being when half the animals in the group have died.

The amount of test substance required to kill half the group is the lethal dose 50% (LD50) figure.

LD50 figures are used to indicate the standard toxicity value for a chemical, however for a single chemical they can vary enormously according to the species, strain, age, gender and even diet of the animals used in the test. A comprehensive report has found that inter-laboratory results for the LD50 figures can vary by as much as three to eleven-fold.

The LD50 test is carried out to test the safety of drugs, medical devices, industrial chemicals (including ingredients for household products), food additives, agricultural chemicals and in some countries for cosmetics ingredients. In terms of LD50 testing for botox the LD50 test can last up to 14 days, during which time animals experience symptoms such as lung haemorrhage, breathing difficulties, kidney and liver damage, tremor, incontinence, convulsions, stomach distension and ulceration, coma and death. No pain relief is normally given.

A body called the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which publishes guidelines describing how various toxicity tests using animals recommends that a minimum of 20 animals are used for testing botox potency, with no maximum being set. In the case of Wickham laboratories, documents taken during an ALF raid have shown that upto 600 mice are used in every day, and guinea pigs and rabbits are also tested on.

The Home Secretary is responsible for licensing animal experiments in the UK. Before granting a licence to carry out animal experiments, he must satisfy himself that certain conditions are fulfilled. In particular, section 5 (5) of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (Amendment) Regulations 1998 states:

The Secretary of State shall not grant a project licence unless he is satisfied-

(a) that the purpose of the programme to be specified in the licence cannot be achieved satisfactorily by any other reasonably practicable method not entailing the use of protected animals which includes “any living vertebrate other than man”

(b) that the regulated procedures to be used are those which use the minimum number of animals, involve animals with the lowest degree of neurophysiological sensitivity, cause the least pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm, and are most likely to produce satisfactory results.

In November 1999, the government finally banned the granting of licences for the LD50 test and all licences issued after September 1998 have been revoked. However LD50 tests are still permitted for batch-testing procedures such as is the case for Botox despite there being a humane alternative.