Workshop hosted by Steven Hanft, President of CONSUBAT
With just a week to go until in-cosmetics Global opens its doors, this blog gains insight into the regulatory workshop, hosted by CONUSBAT: the ever-changing regulatory landscape. The session will take place 5th April 2017, 08:55 – 12:30pm.
Ahead of this workshop, in-cosmetics heard from two of the industry experts speaking:
Q&A with Gerd Mildau, Cosmetics expert at Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Office (CVUA)
Has consumer awareness of harmful components in cosmetics increased over the last year?
Yes, but the reason is not an increasing amount of harmful products but the influence of bad news in social media, e.g. “Alzheimer disease correlates with antiperspirants with aluminium” or “parabens in sunscreens are carcinogenic”. Apart from these alarming and incorrect headlines, which make consumers insecure, there are also more justified questions, such as “Are Temporary tattoos with PPD harmful?” or “What about hair straightening products with Formaldehyde?”
How can manufacturers safe house themselves from using harmful substances?
They need a profound knowledge of all raw materials they are using in their formulas (purity of the substances, chemico-physical and microbiological specifications, all data of the relevant toxicological endpoints). The safety assessor can only confirm the safety of the products with reference to those complete documentations.
What are the steps manufacturers must go through to avoid serious undesirable effects?
- Sufficient and valid in tests before launching a product
- Consideration of special application hints in terms of reasonably foreseeable conditions of use
- Complaints statistics of the marketed product must be regularly analysed
- Establishing structures and processes in order to ensure that the safety assessor is aware of formulation or supplier changes
Q&A with Katy Beckett, ABS Project Manager at Regulatory Delivery, The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, UK Government
What administrative compliance support is on offer for businesses in the UK?
Regulatory Delivery (RD), part of The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), is responsible for the implementation and enforcement of Access and Benefit Sharing legislation in the UK. Given that The Nagoya Protocol and EU ABS Regulation only came into force in 2014, RD has focussed its attention to date on raising awareness and supporting UK businesses to understand what the regulation may mean for certain R&D activities, which involve genetic resources.
How will this change post Brexit?
It is difficult to provide unequivocal advice about what will happen after the UK leaves the EU, but it is likely we/it will remain a party to the Nagoya Protocol and UK users of genetic resources will still be required to comply with the applicable legislation.
Why should businesses be involved in this support – what are the benefits?
Regulatory Delivery’s objective is to support compliance of UK businesses while reducing regulatory burden. Where businesses have questions around compliance and what might be expected from them, we are here to provide clarity and guidance.
What percentage of businesses are involved in the scheme?
There isn’t really a scheme as such – all companies that fall within scope of the regulation are obliged to comply with it. We have engaged with companies through trade associations as well as on an individual basis and continue to reach out to the different sectors that may be affected by the regulation. This is much wider than just cosmetic.
For more information about COSUBAT please visit the website at http://www.conusbat.com/.