The following sites have good information posted that should help answer your questions about product safety testing and environmental safety research:

Biological Research for Animals & People (BioRAP) -- http://www.biorap.org/

The BioRAP series of newsletters includes one on Product Safety -- http://www.biorap.org/br7contents.html

Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) -- http://caat.jhsph.edu/

CAAT's student newsletter, CAATALYST Volume 1, Issue 2 includes a discussion of the terms "cruelty-free" and "not tested on animals" -- http://caat.jhsph.edu/pubs/caatalyst/cruelty_free.htm

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) -- http://www.fda.gov/

Specific pages of interest:

FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) -- http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/list.html
FDA CFSAN Office of Cosmetics -- http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-toc.html
FDA CFSAN COS statement on animal testing -- http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-205.html
FDA CFSAN COS explanation of "cruelty free" -- http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-226.html

And, for additional perspectives:

Research Defense Society (RDS) -- http://www.rds-online.org.uk/

The Society of Toxicology (SOT) -- http://www.toxicology.org/
Statement on animal research -- http://www.toxicology.org/publicoutreach/air/air.html