Ten years of controversy over the safety of aluminium and its salts in cosmetic products may have just ended with the recent Opinion of the SCCS. Published in early December 2019, it defines safe maximum concentrations for the harmless use of these compounds in antiperspirants, toothpastes and lipsticks. This opinion, even if it is still in the consultation phase, is undoubtedly already a victory for the industry. The FEBEA has just welcomed this by publishing a press release proposing a “synthetic decoding of the Scientific Committee’s opinion”. But that the BfR, having itself very recently carried out an assessment of the risk represented by exposure to aluminium, announces that it wants to “review”…
In its Opinion, adopted during the SCCS plenary meeting of 30-31 October 2019, and opened to comments until 17 Februaryy 2020, the Scientific Committee considers that the use of aluminium at concentrations of 6.25% and 10.60% in non-spray antiperspirants and spray antiperspirants, respectively is safe. The SCCS also considers that the use of aluminium at concentrations of 2.65% in toothpaste and 0.77 % in lipstick per se is safe.
On 16 December, FEBEA welcomed this Opinion in a press release entitled: The use of aluminium salts in antiperspirants is safe for health.
FEBEA press release
The Scientific Committee for Consumer Safety (SCCS), an independent committee of experts at the European Commission, has just issued its opinion of 31 October on the safe use of aluminium in cosmetic products.
In this opinion, the SCCS considers it safe to use aluminium in antiperspirants, toothpastes and lipsticks in the usual concentrations of the marketed formulations.
Taking into account all routes of exposure (oral, dermal, respiratory) of these three types of associated products, whether the antiperspirant product is a spray or not, the calculated safety margin is always greater than 2,000. This means that the amount of aluminum to which the consumer is …
