CONTAMINATED TALCUM POWDERS and face paints, and heavy metals in make-up and children’s products are among the health and safety breaches of cosmetics sold in Ireland last year.
As part of the Health Products Authority’s annual report for 2016, 471 cosmetic products were sent for laboratory testing with 54 (11%) found to be non-compliant.
The report showed that the”largest areas of non-compliance included microbial contamination of talcum powders and face paints, heavy metals in make-up and children’s products, phenol in henna products and the presence of kojic acid not declared on the labelling of some skincare creams”.
The investigation looked at quality related complaints (called “compliance cases”), reports of adverse events relating to the use of cosmetics (called “vigilance cases”) and serious risk alerts.
Of the 163 compliance cases opened, 150 involved cosmetic products that were deemed to be non-compliant with EU regulations, which would be more stringent than US regulations.
According to the report, the majority of non-compliance cases were in the areas of labelling, the presence of prohibited substances, contamination (mainly microbiological or heavy metals) and unsupported efficacy claims.
There were five withdrawals from the Irish market as a result of non-compliances due to issues such as microbiological contamination, counterfeiting and labelling issues.
During the year, 13 vigilance cases were investigated. These related to hair products, creams, lotions, make-up products and others.
A total of 110 cases classed as “serious risk alerts” were received from other European member states regarding non-compliant cosmetic products.
Five of these products were found on the Irish market and removed from sale.
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