European nanosafety and cosmetics

The European Commission has asked the Scientific Commission on Consumer Safety (SCCS) to prepare guidelines (guidance) for assessing the safety of cosmetic products with nanomaterials as ingredients. From the Oct. 11, 2011 news item on Nanowerk,

On the basis of the evolving knowledge based on the health risk assessment of specific manufactured nanomaterials, the Commission considers appropriate to request the SCCS to develop guidance on the essential elements that would be required in a manufactured nanomaterial safety dossier i.e. physicochemical characterisation; toxicological evaluation, exposure assessment etc.

This request is being made in anticipation of some new regulations for cosmetic products containing nanomaterials, which will be implement in January 2013, according to the European Commission’s Request for Guidance document, available here.

This will not only facilitate the submission of safety dossiers at present, but will also assist in the implementation of the provisions of article 16 of the Cosmetics Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009/ which will impose strict conditions and timelines for the notification and the assessment of cosmetic products containing nanomaterials on the responsible persons and the SCCS respectively, starting on January 2013.

On the basis of the evolving knowledge based on the health risk assessment of specific manufactured nanomaterials, the Commission considers appropriate to request the SCCS to develop guidance on the essential elements that would be required in a manufactured nanomaterial safety dossier i.e. physicochemical characterisation; toxicological evaluation, exposure assessment etc. (p. 1)

The deadline for developing the guidance (guidelines) is February 2012.  There was this tidbit too,

In elaborating this guidance, and taking into account the growing experience on the matter the SCCS is asked to consider all available documentation on the subject such as the SCCP scientific opinion on safety of nanomaterials in cosmetic products; the documents issued by the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials; the EFSA scientific opinion on guidance on risk assessment of the application of nanoscience and nanotechnologies in the food and feed chain. [emphasis mine] (p. 2)

Canada has been very involved with the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials. In light of this and of Health Canada’s recent policy statement on a working definition for nanomaterials (my Oct. 11, 2011 posting), I wonder if Canadians are going to see any similar attempts at creating guidelines for safety assessments of cosmetics and other products containing engineered nanomaterials as ingredients.

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