Reaching for the cosmetics

Industry remains upbeat about complying with REACH, the EU’s ambitious regulation on chemicals, writes Jennifer Rankin.

This morning I washed my hair in a mixture containing sodium C12-13 and cocamidopropyl, spritzed my wrists with some expensively-advertised stearyl ether and steareth 2, and brushed my teeth with minty fresh sodium hydroxide and potassium nitrate. For me as for most people, the smallprint of a shampoo bottle is both humdrum and mysterious. But for those working in Europe’s cosmetics and toiletries industries, the ingredients are the object of careful study: they are gearing up to comply with REACH, the EU’s ambitious regulation on chemicals.

The industry is hopeful that REACH, (the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical Substances) will have a positive impact, but say that many issues about its implementation remain uncertain.

Unusually for an industry group, the European Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association (Colipa), which represents around 2,000 companies, lobbied to be included in REACH. Their spokesman, Sebastian Marx, says that the industry has been "under constant attack from NGOs". He adds that Colipa believes that "REACH is a tool for consumer confidence". Nevertheless, there is still nervousness, as the industry, worth €62.7 billion a year in the EU15 plus Norway and Switzerland, waits to see how REACH will work in practice.

Some analysts believe that REACH will reduce the industry’s choice of substances, which they put into their ‘preparations’ (the technical term for lotions, oils, soaps, scents and make-ups). In the September issue of the industry journal Cosmetics and Toiletries, Johann Wiechers and Mark Chandler write that "a substantial portion of the raw materials currently available to the cosmetic formulator will be eliminated" because "the low-profit margins of [some] raw materials will never earn the investment of safety testing back, so they will be taken off the market". Lawyers at the Brussels office of Covington and Burling LLP, a law-firm, have also suggested that European firms could face a more limited choice of chemical substances as their suppliers seek to reduce the cost of complying with REACH.

Marx says that this is one of the "practical uncertainties" of the REACH legislation, although he adds that while "the fear has been there, it hasn’t happened so far". Another uncertainty for the industry is the cost of registering substances. Colipa says they are still waiting to hear from the European Chemicals Agency (ECA) about the cost of registration, which makes it impossible for them to estimate the full cost of REACH on the industry. The agency has promised that these figures will be ready by 1 June 2008 at the latest and hopes that it could be sooner.

Colipa is also lobbying to have natural ingredients included in the REACH system, eg, perfume oils. Marx says: "Natural ingredients should be part of the REACH system because it’s a substance." Nevertheless he acknowledges that there are many complexities. "It depends on the year and it depends on the harvest and in this area it could be difficult. I can’t imagine a farmer producing lavender having to register two or three times a year," he says. A spokesperson at the Commission says there are no plans to include under REACH normally occurring substances beyond a few dangerous exceptions.

Between 2008 and 2018, there will be four major deadlines to register, test, assess and certify chemicals. A key one for the cosmetics industry comes in December 2010, when importers of chemical products will be required to report the chemical classifications of substances in those products. Petteri Makela, a spokesman at the ECA in Helsinki, says that the cosmetics industry will be affected in the same way as any other downstream user. "Implementation is implementation," he says, addding: "Of course it’s going to be a challenge to many companies to get ready to get all the data they require appropriately."

For the cosmetics industry, this is all a novel experience, especially when compared to the European cosmetics directive, which evolved over more than a decade with numerous amendments. Marx contrasts that directive with what the industry faces now. "REACH is a new system, so there will be some birth problems which have to be sorted out," he says.

Industry remains upbeat about complying with REACH, the EU’s ambitious regulation on chemicals, writes Jennifer Rankin.