The European Commission is reviewing the Cosmetics Regulation (EC) 1223/2009 as part of the EU Chemical Strategy for Sustainability.
This is being done in three phases. The first phase the Inception Im-pact Assessment (IIA) ran from 4 October 2021 until 1 November 2021. The second phase is the Public Consultation which was launched on 29 March and will run until 21 June 2022. The third phase is the im-plementation phase which is likely to result in significant changes to the Cosmetics Regulation (EC) 1223/20 09.
The objectives of the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability are to provide better protection of people and the environment against hazardous chemicals and encourage the development and use of safe and sustainable alternatives.
The reason that this is significant is that it extends the generic approach to risk management and would potentially result in raw materials being assessed based on their hazard and not risk. The EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability also aims to improve the effectiveness and efficiency in the way that it carries out safety assessments for REACH and CLP and proposes to give the work done by the SCCS to ECHA.
Trade bodies such as CTPA and Cosmetics Europe are concerned that the generic risk assessment ap-proach will change the way in which ingredients are assessed and that this will be based on hazard and not risk. Potentially the EU Chemical Strategy for Sustainability is likely to result in greater restrictions of cosmetic ingredients and reformulation of products.
