In this Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020, photo scientist and study director Jennifer Molignano uses an electronic pipette to prepare culture medium, a dark pink fluid that provides nutrition to living human skin tissue, as she sets up a demonstration of experiments at a MatTek Corporation lab, in Ashland, Mass. Molignano demonstrated experiments created to evaluate the effects of exposing living human skin tissues to commercially available skin care products, as well as an experiment to evaluate the effects of ultraviolet B rays, a simulation of exposing skin tissues to sunlight. AP photo

Seven years after it was first proposed, New York is set to ban the sale of cosmetics tested on animals.

A.5653/S.4839 is similar to laws that have taken effect recently in California, Nevada and Illinois that ban the sale or importing of animal-tested cosmetics. The legislation passed the state Senate unanimously and passed the state Assembly 143-2 with Assemblymen Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, and Joe Giglio, R-Gowanda, voting in favor.

If a company is found to be in violation of the law, it can face a civil penalty of up to $5,000 for a first violation and no more than $1,000 a day if the violation continues.

“With the passage of this legislation, New York state will become the ninth state in the nation to ban the sale of cosmetics tested on animals,” said Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, D-New York City. “It’s often been said that beauty is painful, but that should not be the case for innocent animals. The tests conducted on small animals like mice, guinea pigs and rabbits and others for cosmetic tests are as unnecessary as they are cruel. They subject innocent animals to painful medical procedures, often cause severe physical suffering and death.”

The bill’s text spells out several exemptions that prompted many Republicans to join with Democrats and vote in favor of the bill. The ban doesn’t apply to animal testing conducted as a requirement of any federal or state regulatory agency, if the cosmetic or ingredient being tested is in wide use or can’t be replaced by another ingredient; if a specific human health problem is substantiated and animal testing is needed to evaluate the cosmetic or ingredient; and if there is no other way to test the material other than animal testing that meets state or federal guidelines.

Materials tested on animals can also still be sold in New York if the ingredient was tested on animals before the new law takes effect in January 2023, even if the cosmetic is manufactured after January.

“The bill actually addresses some of those obvious issues by saying this is not a complete ban,” Goodell said. “It’s a partial ban. And so this bill would not, for example, apply if a cosmetic is being tested on an animal as required by state or federal law for safety reasons, if that testing is widespread and there is no alternative of ensuring the product is safe. … With those qualifications I would support it because I think the qualifications are reasonable and meet the appropriate balance between ensuring that our residents can look their best using cosmetics and do so safely without risk of adverse reactions.”

Animal-tested cosmetics already are banned in Europe, India and elsewhere, which means many United States-based cosmetic companies have already stopped testing their products on animals. The real aim of the bans is China, which has a policy requiring that most cosmetics are tested on animals. China’s policy applies to all imported cosmetics, including perfume, makeup and hair care products, according to the Associated Press.