Speaking on behalf of the Personal Care Products Council, Halyna Breslawec, chief scientist and executive vice president for science at the council, said, “Cosmetics are among the safest category of products regulated by the FDA. The safety of our consumers and their families is always the number one priority for our industry. Careful and thorough scientific research and development are the most important aspects of cosmetic formulation and the foundation for everything that we do. The American cosmetics industry invests more than $3.6 billion each year on scientific research and development. As a result of this research, 2,000 new products are launched each year, and numerous scientific studies are published on enhancing or developing new safety methods. A regulatory structure should be comprehensive and robust, but should not be so overly burdensome that it stifles or prevents companies from delivering innovative products to the marketplace. Product safety is a priority for each of our member companies and for our trade association. The companies we represent invest substantial resources each year to ensure the safety and efficacy of their products. Companies work diligently with chemists, toxicologists, microbiologists, dermatologists, environmental scientists and other scientific experts to evaluate and ensure the safety of cosmetic products before they reach the marketplace.”
She added, “The cosmetic industry plays a unique role in the lives of American women, and not just as women consumers. Our industry is committed to enhancing their lives in a number of ways. We are dedicated to ensuring women have advantages and opportunities for both their professional and personal success. Women comprise 66 percent of our industry’s workforce, compared to 48 percent of the overall workforce. Women now hold more than half of all management positions in our industry, compared with 36 percent of industry in general. Moreover, women of color represent 22 percent of our total workforce, and 11 percent of management, compared to 17 percent of employment and seven percent of management industries throughout the entire economy.”
Curran Dandurand, chief executive officer of Jack Black Skincare, said, “Currently within the United States there has been a movement to create separate state requirements. These regulations would be separate and apart from, and inconsistent with, the federal standards established by the FDA. Compliance with separate state laws that are inconsistent with federal standards would necessitate labeling changes, reformulation, excess packaging, and extensive registration requirements, which are simply not feasible for small companies like ours, even successful ones. Smaller companies cannot afford to carry separate inventories to meet the different state requirements and cannot afford the regulatory staff needed to meet the registration requirements contained in some of the proposed state legislative initiatives.”
She added, “For the benefit of all stakeholders, consumers, personal care marketers, as well as regulators, there needs to be one consistent national standard that protects consumer health and safety and provides clear direction and certainty for the regulated companies and the regulators. This would mean transparency in all health and safety decisions and a single forum where all can participate. We support the modernization of the FDA laws that creates a national standard for cosmetics. I believe this will best protect the health and safety of our consumers and provide a strong foundation for growth and success of our small entrepreneurial companies that create jobs here in the U.S.”
Michael J. DiBartolomeis, chief occupational lead of the California Safe Cosmetics Program at the California Department of Public Health, said, “The cosmetics provision within the FFDCA was written in 1938 and has not been significantly amended in over 70 years. Since that time, the cosmetics industry has grown to be a multibillion dollar industry with products being marketed world wide and sold not only in retail stores but by individuals working out of their homes and over the Internet. While the industry has changed, the provisions in the federal law for regulating cosmetics have not.”
He continued, explaining how the state of California has addressed this issue, “The California Safe Cosmetics Act [S.B. 484] was signed into law in 2005, and is based on the principle of ‘right to know.’ The act requires manufacturers with aggregate sales of greater than one million dollars and whose products are sold in California to disclose to the state all intentionally added chemical ingredients in their products that are known or suspected to cause cancer or reproductive and or developmental toxicity, regardless of the concentration of the chemical … Although the Safe Cosmetics Act does not set product safety standards or ban any products, it responds to public concerns about the safety of cosmetics by empowering them to avoid the most toxic chemicals, and it thereby also promotes product reformulation. The act grants authority to the state’s Safe Cosmetics Program to conduct audits, investigations, and health-based studies, and requires manufacturers to submit any additional information on their products as deemed necessary by the program for conducting these assessments. Note that FDA does not have comparable authority.”
Debbie May, president and chief executive officer of Wholesale Supplies Plus, and Peter Barton Hutt, senior counsel at Covington and Burling, LLP, also testified.
Photo: Dressing case used as a make-up case by music hall comic and pantomime dame Harry Randall (1860–1932); made by J. J. Mechi, London, 1840-1860. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Wikimedia Commons
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