NGO Calls for Market Withdrawal of 23 Cosmetic Products

A French consumer rights group is urging the European Commission to immediatelywithdraw 23 cosmetic products which, it claims, contain substances banned under EU law.

The group, UFC Que Choisir, says the products, which include sun spray for children, hair gel, powder foundation and eye care products, contain methylisothiazolinone (MIT) or isobutylparaben.

MIT is banned in leave-on cosmetics and soon to be restricted to a concentration limit of 15 parts per million in rinse-off products.

Isobutylparaben is one of five parabens banned from cosmetic products in 2014.

UFC Que Choisir has created a database of cosmetics containing 12 chemicals of concern. It has asked consumers to help find cosmetic products containing them. The database holds more than 1,000 consumer referrals.

Several of the products contain potential endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), such as BHA (butylhydroxyanisol), which the NGO found in a baby ointment. BHA was among a group of chemicals that the Danish EPA recently said were the most significant endocrine disruptors to which babies and pregnant women may be exposed.

Product labelling is often misleading, the group says. Soaps and creams labelled as "hypoallergenic", "for sensitive skin" or "dermatologically tested" contained highly allergenic preservatives, such as MIT and methylchloroisothiazolinone (MCIT).

Slow EU legal procedures, such as the delay in the adoption of criteria to identify EDCs, and pressure from the cosmetic industry, it says, mean it takes too long to eliminate substances of concern from consumer products.

It urges consumers to avoid cosmetics with problematic substances by consulting its database, and to continue submitting examples of products containing any of its 12 chemicals of concern.