Introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on July 20, 2010, the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 (H.R.5786) will help ensure that all personal care products are safe by establishing a common-sense system to assess the safety of cosmetics ingredients and to phase out the most harmful substances that are highly suspected of causing cancer, reproductive harm or other serious health issues. It will also empower consumers to make informed choices by ensuring that all product ingredients are disclosed. Learn more about the bill here.

This legislation will protect the health of people and the planet, while ensuring the long-term health of the cosmetics industry. By shifting away from the toxic chemistry and polluting technologies of the past, American companies will lead the way in a global marketplace where consumers are demanding the next generation of safer, non-toxic products.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will companies have to do?

How will the safety assessment system work?

How will the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 impact small businesses?

Will the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 discourage innovation?

How is the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 different from current law?

How is this bill different from the TSCA reform, the Safe Chemicals Act of 2010?

What is the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics?

What will companies have to do?

According to our understanding of the legislation, cosmetics companies will have to:

• Register the company and its products with the FDA;
• Fully disclose ingredients in products (businesses that have signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics have already agreed to do this, and hundreds of companies are already fully disclosing all ingredients, including those that make up "fragrance");
• Pay fees based on total annual sales to ensure the FDA has the capacity to evaluate the safety of ingredients; companies with under $1 million in annual sales are exempt from fees; and
  
• Share safety data about product ingredients and ensure that all ingredients in the company’s products have been assessed for safety.

How will the safety assessment system work?

Over time, the FDA will set up a database containing information about cosmetics ingredients and relevant safety assessments and data, and will provide guidance to industry about the safe use of ingredients. There will be no immediate changes to the ingredients allowed in cosmetics under the Safe Cosmetics Act.

The Act requires companies to share existing safety data with the FDA. It also requires suppliers of cosmetic ingredients to make available to manufacturers information regarding the toxicological properties and the safety – including any safety tests they’ve conducted – of those ingredients, including the chemicals in the fragrance and preservatives.  This "producer right-to-know" provision will make it easier for cosmetic companies to make the safe products that consumers are asking for and deserve. Under the current system, suppliers do not have to disclose ingredients to manufacturers and they often won't provide that information.

The new system will aggregate all of this safety data, and make it publicly available to all companies so they can make more informed decisions about formulation and product safety.

How will the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 impact small businesses?

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics strongly supports small businesses and we have always been major advocates for elevating the work and values of the independent businesses that are the driving force of innovation toward health and safety in the personal care products industry. Preserving opportunities for small businesses to succeed, while also making sure that U.S. products meet a high bar of safety, is critical for the continued success of the personal care industry, as well as for the U.S. economy as a whole. We are fully committed to working together with companies in our Compact for Safe Cosmetics community and others to ensure that the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 does not unfairly burden small businesses that are already committed to making the safest products possible.

There is a lot of misinformation circulating about the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 that it will "kill small businesses." This couldn’t be further from the truth and is an unfortunate misrepresentation of the facts. The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 contains specific provisions to protect and help small businesses, including:

• Fee exemptions for small businesses with less than $1 million in annual sales.
• Data sharing and transparency: small businesses will benefit by having access to safety assessments conducted by other cosmetics companies and suppliers that are currently kept private, and it will open up the information flow so all companies have easier access to the information that will help them make the best decisions about product safety.
• "Producer right-to-know" provisions that will enable cosmetics companies to get full information from suppliers about toxicological data and safety information for cosmetic ingredients, including the chemicals in fragrance and preservatives.

Small companies will be required to meet the provisions of the bill, such as disclosure of fragrance ingredients (which many Compact signers are already doing) and safety substantiation of product ingredients (which is a requirement of current FDA law but not enforced). We believe these challenges can be met without harm to small businesses and we believe the benefits of the Safe Cosmetics Act to small businesses will far outweigh the challenges.

In the big picture, the Safe Cosmetics Act will benefit small businesses by leveling the playing field and increasing consumer awareness about their choices at the store. In the current marketplace, where ingredients are kept secret and toxicity data is inaccessible, consumers are confused and do not have easy access to the information they need to make informed choices. The data and product transparency provisions of the Act will help clear up confusion and give consumers the tools to more easily choose the best and safest products.

The Act will also lift the cosmetics industry as a whole. While many large companies do not want to change, it is not helpful to the cosmetics industry to be using decades-old formulations with known toxicity problems, and ignoring the new science that makes it clear that low-dose toxic chemical exposures are a health hazard. The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 will bring the American cosmetics industry to the forefront of global competitiveness by moving the industry as a whole away from the polluting chemistry of the past, and spurring the innovation of green chemistry and the development of the next generation of safer products that the world market is demanding – increasing consumer confidence in U.S.-made products and ensuring that we all have access to safe personal care products.

Will the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 discourage innovation? 

No. We often hear that "regulation holds back innovation," but when it comes to chemicals used by the beauty industry, the opposite is true. Lack of information about chemicals is holding back innovation and slowing down the inevitable move to safer products that will benefit health and the environment. The big companies will not shift to safer ingredients unless they have to. According to a University of California report, signed by more than 100 academics, green chemistry innovation will not happen without new policies that stimulate the market.

Setting a bottom line of safety in the marketplace doesn't limit the ability of companies to innovate safer alternatives and lift the bar even higher in terms of safety and sustainable production.

We hope you will join our efforts to push for a transition to safer production and smarter laws to support innovation, level the playing field and keep hazardous chemicals out of products we all use.

How is the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 different from current law?

Under the current law, which is more than 70 years old, the FDA does not have the authority to require safety data for cosmetic ingredients and there is no government system for assessing the safety of these ingredients – it's up to the companies to decide what's safe. The new law will create a fair system for assessing the safety of cosmetic ingredients and phasing out the most hazardous ingredients, under the FDA's guidance.

How is this bill different from the TSCA reform, the Safe Chemicals Act of 2010?

Another bill recently introduced into Congress, the Safe Chemicals Act, reforms the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, which governs industrial chemicals under the Environmental Protection Agency. Cosmetics are explicitly exempt from this bill because they fall under the purview of the Food and Drug Administration. That's why we also need the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010, which reforms the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1938. Both bills contain safeguards to design a fair system that assesses chemicals for safety, phasing out the most toxic substances and making chemical information more available and transparent. The bills support and reinforce each other.

Who is the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics?

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is a coalition of non-profit breast cancer prevention, health and consumer public interest organizations working to ensure that everyone has access to safer body care products. Learn more about us.

Growth in the natural beauty sector in recent years is being driven largely by concerned consumers seeking safer alternatives to toxic chemical-laden products and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has been at the forefront of educating the public about this issue via our reports, web site and EWG’s Skin Deep web site since 2002.

We work with companies who are leading the way in making safer products in the marketplace and invite these and other companies and members of the beauty industry to join us in our efforts for sensible policies that set a bottom line of safety, give consumers better information so they can make informed choices about the products they buy, and are a win-win for our health, innovation, sustainable businesses of all sizes and the planet.

More Information

Overview of the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010

Bill text from the Library of Congress