On 8 March 2021, the SCCS published a corrigendum to its Scientific Advice on the safety of nanomaterials in cosmetics, the final version of which was adopted in January. In particular, amendments were made to Annex I of this Advice, which establishes the list of priority nanomaterials in the EC Catalogue of nanomaterials (2019) on the basis of risk potential.
Background
Faced with the successive “inconclusive” Opinions of the SCCS on nano-ingredients, due to insufficient data to make a decision on the risk it represents, the European Commission has found itself in a deadlock and unable to regulate these substances.
In order to break the deadlock, it therefore asked the SCCS “to provide a description of the specific concerns that have been identified for the nanomaterials” based not only on the data submitted by the industry, but also on the evidence in the scientific literature.
The Committee was also tasked to prioritise the ingredients listed in the European Catalogue of Nanomaterials for risk assessment and to review, in the light of these elements, the previous Opinions on nanoscale ingredients that had remained inconclusive.
The SCCS adopted the final version of its Advice in January 2021.
For an exhaustive background information, see the articles
• Safety of nanomaterials in cosmetics: request for a scientific advice to SCCS, CosmeticOBS, 10 February 2020
• SCCS: Preliminary Opinion on the safety of nanomaterials in cosmetics, CosmeticOBS, 13 October 2020
• SCCS’s Scientific Advice on the safety of nanomaterials in cosmetics: final version, CosmeticOBS, 18 January 2021
