How Safe Are Your Cosmetics? Products Containing Toxic Chemicals Sold As Beauty-Care Items
by Akash Mishra web designerThe cosmetic market in India is booming because of the
increasing demand for varied personal care products among the youth. But these
particular sectors are simply operating without much safety and regulations,
thereby giving way to various concerns among public health advocates. In the
present situation, most of the personal care products like hair care products,
skincare products, fragrances, bathing products, etc come under the regulation
of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, and they are not at all adequate as per some of
the industry experts. Towards the end of the year 2018, the health ministry had
given a regulatory framework for the cosmetic products known as "Cosmetic
Rules 2018" but it remains unattainable. There are large numbers of
cosmetic product that contains several toxic chemicals and are sold in the
market without any regulations.
The new regulations that were proposed under the
D&C Act contains about 169 sections but only seven of them are for cosmetic
products. Due to the absence of any regulations for cosmetics, safety
wholly depends on the carefulness of the manufacturers as well as cosmetic importers.
All the cosmetic products that are either manufactured or imported for being
sold in India should be registered either with the state or the central
licensing authority. However, this cosmetic registration process in India is not flawless. As
proper regulations are absent, there are several products, some of which are
highly hazardous being sold in the market. For example, certain beauty products
like artificial nails, hair straightening products, artificial eyelashes do not
come under the regulations and are sold without any efficient oversight.
What is
going wrong?
There is a lack of specific provisions under the
existing act for approving the personal care items. Still, there are so many
different products where permission is given based only on the product name and
the details of composition and the ingredients are not checked.
For example, some harmful chemicals like phenol and
trichloroacetic are found in many beauty products. These ingredients show high
efficiency in treating scars but long term use of these products may lead to
several health hazards.
The major aspect lacking in the existing regulations
is the absence of an evaluation of the ingredients while cosmetic product
registration in India. The final product is given the license without the
composition being mentioned on the approval certificate. Due to this, most of
the unscrupulous substances manage to escape without going through any action.
Similarly, as a step to curb the use of toxic
ingredients in cosmetics, the Indian government banned the use of hydroquinone
in creams for decreasing skin pigmentation. Long term use of this product often
leads to several health hazards.
Cosmetics
product will soon have to meet strict safety norms for manufacture and import!
Owing to the safety of all consumers, new draft
regulations will propose some strict measures to make sure that cosmetics are
safe for general use. All companies that are launching new products should
submit safety data to the concerned department for obtaining approvals.
There will be provisions for inspecting the
manufacturing units, product sampling as well as confiscations if there are any
violations.
The companies will also keep details of the product
batches as well as the raw materials for three years. All the manufacturers
will have to follow some strict labeling regulations and avoid making any
false claims. Especially regarding the cosmetic
registration in India and import of other cosmetic products.
So, as per the existing scenario, strict norms and
regulations should be framed for the safety of consumers by the respective
authorities concerned.
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Created on Feb 12th 2020 23:54. Viewed 351 times.