Special focus on children’s safety: make-up and cosmetics

• What: risk assessment of products for children
• Why: special attention to children’s health
• Where/Who: initiated by the Official Laboratory of Canton of Basel-City, Switzerland – followed-up by the rest of the Network
• How: extensive assessment of products available on the market

The official laboratory of the Canton of Basel-City in Switzerland runs studies to check the quality of cosmetics for children, including both care cosmetics (such as creams, shampoos and oils widely available on the market) and products specifically for children (such as decorative cosmetics for parties).

When these studies were repeated by other OCCLs, each at their own national level, many products were found to contain banned ingredients (including colorants, preservatives and lead), as well as high concentrations of allergens and impurities (including nitrosamines). Labelling of the ingredients was often very poor and at times even purposely wrong.

The results raised the question of whether the authorities should focus on more frequently used products which have good overall compliance rates, or on less frequently used products, which on occasion can have alarmingly high rates of non-compliance, mainly in terms of chemical contents and labelling.

Learn more at [email protected].