ABSTRACT
It is clearly not possible in a short chapter such as this to cover in detail safety assessment programs to comply with the legislative environment surrounding cosmetic products in each of the major markets of the world. Neither is it possible to provide in-depth instruction on toxicological testing methods and interpretation of data. Such a program would, and indeed should, become outdated as scientific methods evolve. In fact, during the writing of this chapter, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) agreed to delete the LD50 test from its list of official protocols [1]. The shortcomings of this test have been known to toxicologists for a long time, but getting agreement for it to be delisted has also taken a long time. Instead, therefore, the intention of this chapter will be to provide something of the philosophy of cosmetic product safety to guide rather than train from scratch the safety assessor and to help colleagues understand the needs of the safety assessor.
