L’Oreal Funds EPA Research

French cosmetics company L’Oreal is donating $1.2 million to the US Environmental Protection Agency with the goal of bolstering research that could eliminate cosmetics testing on animals. According to Jared Blumenfeld, the EPA’s regional administrator in California, the money will help fund the agency’s ToxCast program, a computer-aided system that uses mathematical algorithms to determine a product’s toxicity. EPA researchers will compare toxicology results from ToxCast to data derived during L’Oreal’s own tests, in order to verify the system’s accuracy. “Using state-of-the art methods, we hope to show that products can be proven safe for the consumer without the use of animals,” says Blumenfeld.