EU Cosmetics Directive Strengthened

The EU Cosmetics Directive is being amended to implement stricter requirements for nanomaterials and CMRs (carcinogens, mutagens and reproductive toxicants). Environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth (FOE) have been calling for some time for nanomaterials to be listed on ingredients listings on packaging and this has finally become mandatory. A safety assessment procedure will also be established for all products containing nanomaterials. Manufacturers who add nanomaterials to cosmetic products must inform the EU Commission six months prior to launch and the Commission will then consult an expert committee. The EU Commission had previously contested that adequate legislation was in Read more

Cocktail of Cosmetic and Pharmaceutical Chemicals Pollute Oceans

Research conducted by Tobias Porsbring of the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, has demonstrated that chemicals assumed to be non-toxic in isolation can pose an environmental threat when in combination with other chemicals. When European and other authorities assess the environmental risks of chemicals they often look at them individually but they do not work alone in the environment. As it states on the University of Gothenburg website, “Chemicals, drugs and personal-care products that accompany wastewater often end up in the oceans, where they form a “cocktail” of chemicals. This “cocktail-effect” may be more harmful than the individual chemicals alone.”

Read more

Personal Care Products and Human Medications in US Waterways

Researchers at Baylor University, working in conjunction with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, have detected residues of pharmaceutical drugs and personal care products in fish caught near wastewater treatment plants serving five major U.S. cities.

Findings from this nationwide study of human medicines in fish tissue, published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, have prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to expand similar ongoing research to over 150 different locations.
Read more

EU Ban on Testing Cosmetic Ingredients on Animals

The Seventh amendment to the EU Cosmetics Directive (legislation covering cosmetics) means that from March 11, 2009, it is illegal to test cosmetic ingredients on animals for skin irritancy, phototoxicity, corrosivity, percutaneous absorption, genotoxicity, ocular irritancy and acute toxicity. It is now illegal to test cosmetic ingredients on animals anywhere in the EU and to sell or import into the EU cosmetic ingredients or products that have been animal tested after March 11, 2009, with the exception of eight other tests which are still authorised until 2013.

In 2013 animal testing will also become illegal for carcinogenicity,
Read more

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics: Carcinogens in Children’s Bath Products

A report called “No More Toxic Tub” released today by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has revealed that, far from being safe and gentle, dozens of best-selling children’s bath products are contaminated with the cancer-causing chemicals formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane. 

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics commissioned an independent laboratory to test 48 products for 1,4-dioxane and formaldehyde. Findings included:
  
17 out of 28 (61 percent) products tested contained formaldehyde and 1,4- Read more

OCA Follow-up Cosmetic Tests Reveal Lower 1,4-Dioxane

In 2007 and 2008 the US Organic Consumers Association (OCA) in conjunction with Dr Bronners and health consumer advocate David Steinman, released a study which showed that a number of products labelled as ‘organic’ and even some certified as ‘organic,’ (apart from those certified by the USDA which has stringent oragnic standards), contained the petrochemical carcinogen 1,4-dioxane.

As a result in May 2008 the OCA and Dr Bronner’s filed Cease and Desist Letters to many of the brands making fraudulent claims when they were in Read more

ASA Rule that Pentapeptides are not Anti-ageing

Pentapeptides, lauded as anti-ageing miracles by the likes of Olay in their adverts for products such as Regenerist, are not effective at reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, according to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). 

Following a complaint received by a doctor who challenged whether there was scientific evidence to justify the claim that pentapeptides can reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, the ASA initiated its own investigation and came to the conclusion that the advert for Olay Regenerist skin cream should not be broadcast as it stands because there is not sufficient
Read more

Organic Products Found to Contain Parabens

Premium Beauty News, a magazine for cosmetic industry insiders, has revealed that The French Agency for the Medical Safety of Health Products (AFSSAPS) and the General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumers and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) have published the results of a joint marketing survey, looking into the ‘preservative-free’ claims of ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ brands.

The survey looked at 30 cosmetic products, with 28 of these being certified organic (to standards such as Ecocert, BDIH, ICEA-AIAB and Visagro) and 6 being labelled as a ‘natural’ and/or ‘organic’ product. 12 claimed to be free Read more

REACH: A Thorn in the side of the Chemical Industry?

Nicolas Garderes, a French attorney specialising in environmental and European law with the international law firm Denton Wilde Sapte, writes in GCI Magazine of the challenges faced by manufacturers who are now required to meet the terms of the EU chemicals regulation called REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical Substances). Nicolas suggests that whilst larger companies have made investments in compliance with REACH for the most part, small and mid-size companies are struggling to deal with the regulatory issues involved. 

Nicolas also points out that the US “is clearly one of the countries most Read more

Cosmetic Products May be Over-preserved

Researchers, led by Michael Dyrgaard Lundov from Gentofte University Hospital, Denmark, in a study published in the journal Contact Dermatitis, have suggested that concentrations of preservatives may be too high in some cosmetic products. For example, the preservative Kathon CG was found in concentrations of up to 15 parts per million (ppm) even though this preservative is a potent sensitiser and concentrations as low as 2.5 ppm have elicited allergic reactions in sensitised individuals.

Preservatives are added to cosmetic products with a high water content to minimise product spoilage and the proliferation of undesirable
Read more

Next Page »