The EU Commission (EC) has added 23 chemicals to its list of substances that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction (CMR). These substances will be banned in cosmetics according to the Article 15 of the Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009, which states that CMR substances should be prohibited in cosmetic products unless one of the conditions set out in this article are fulfilled.
The conditions were not fulfilled for these 23 CMR chemicals and they will become prohibited with Omnibus IV regulation that was drafted on June 18, 2021. Substances will be added to Annex II of the Cosmetics Regulation, which includes the list of substances that are prohibited in cosmetic products.
These CMR substances are set to be banned from March 1, 2022 in all cosmetic products on the EU market.
The list includes:
- Zinc Pyrrithione, which is now authorized as a preservative up to 1% in rinse off hair products and 0.5% in other rinse off products excluding oral products and as an anti-dandruff ingredient in leave on hair products up to 0.1%. The substance will be removed from Annex III and V and be added to Annex II.
- Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate, which is currently authorized as a preservative up to 0.5%. It will be removed from Annex V and added to Annex II.
- Butylphenyl methylpropional (Lilial) is a common fragrance allergen, which will be added to Annex II
The full list of 23 substances can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/tbt/en/search/?tbtaction=search.detail&Country_ID=EU&num=773&dspLang=en&basdatedeb=&basdatefin=&baspays=EU&basnotifnum=&basnotifnum2=&bastypepays=&baskeywords=
