Industry Must Avoid Stigmatising Preservatives, Says EU Commission

The ongoing regulatory scrutiny of preservatives is of "great concern", Martin Seychell, deputy general of the European Commission’s health directorate (DG Sante), has said.

Speaking at trade body Cosmetics Europe's annual conference in Brussels last week, Mr Seychell (pictured) told delegates: "Excessively reducing the palette of preservatives available to formulators creates real public health problems. It means that consumers are exposed to higher levels of the remaining ones."

Bans and restrictions on widely used substances have come into force over the last two years, including for several parabens and the mixture of methylchloroisothiazolinone and methylisothiazolinone (MCI/MI).

In the EU, preservatives are part of a 'positive list' and only ingredients endorsed by the competent authorities of all member states - and listed in the cosmetics Regulation - are permitted for use. Assessments are carried out by the European Commission’s Scientific Committee for Consumer Safety (SCCS).

There are currently 132 preservatives on the list, but sometimes these need to be used in combination to reach the correct efficacy.

Mr Seychell said risk managers, "must fulfil their responsibilities with great care" and do what they can to avoid losing substances from the list unnecessarily.

But he added that industry needed to avoid "stigmatising the use of preservatives". Claims of products being preservative free or paraben free, when the science committee has concluded that they are not of concern, could "undermine the risk assessment process", he said.

Mr Seychell also highlighted the risk of product contamination if preservatives were not used, which he said could have "a great impact on human health".

Industry survey

The shrinking pool of preservatives available on the market in Europe has prompted action from Cosmetics Europe.

As part of its strategy, the trade body is surveying members about their use of the substances in personal care products.

Cosmetics Europe director general, John Chave, told Chemical Watch that the reduced pool put "more pressure on those that remain".

He said some people in the industry saw the situation with product preservation as "a crisis" and it was incumbent on the trade body to "ensure that the regulatory environment and communication is supportive of a wide palette of preservation ingredients".

The survey intends to create a picture of use across the spectrum of cosmetic products, by asking members which they use in products, how they use them, in what combination and in what kind of formulation.

Mr Chave said the results would be "a platform for evolving our strategy for going forward which is partly about communication, partly about risk assessment and risk management and partly about regulation as well."