This is the second part of the answer given by the French Agency for sanitary safety of health products (Afssaps; also responsible for the control and the safety of cosmetics) to the topic initiated in 2008 by the Committee for a sustainable development of health products (C2DS, as per its French acronym): babies’ products harmlessness. The Agency gives now a full report on the evaluation of the safety of the cosmetics designed for use on children under three, along recommendations.
Autumn 2008: the C2DS, a group of M.D.s, chemists, oncologists, managers of health facilities and maternity wards, fingered out the briefcases given new mothers that could contain a "toxic cocktail" of products of dubious harmlessness.
Following this controversy, the
Afssaps
began with a thorough check of the products then available on the market and went to the conclusion, on 27 Oct 2009, that the assessment was "overall acceptable".
In the meantime, the Agency had set up a workgroup responsible for writing recommendations so that the manufacturers may produce harmless products. After a public enquiry that lasted several months, these recommendations have been approved by the Cosmetology Commission on 11 March 2010 and are now published in their final form.
First, the document states the major points to consider to guarantee the harmlessness of cosmetic products designed for children under three, linked to:
• the peculiarities of children between 0 and 3, whose the surface/body mass ratio is far more important than adults’, and whose the functional immaturity of the metabolic systems may last up to 2,
• some specific conditions of exposure, especially that of the babies’ bottoms, which may be overexposed,
• some categories of products, especially the “leave-on” …
