Following the mandate given by the European Commission to the SCCS last February, the Committee has just published its Scientific Advice on the safety of nanomaterials used in cosmetic products. It details “the aspects of nanomaterials that constitute a basis for concern over safety to consumers’ health”, prioritises nano-ingredients with regard to their potential risk and goes back over three previous Opinions to complete them. This Scientific Advice has been adopted by writtent procedure on 5 October 2020 and is open for consultation until 2 November.
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.
For an exhaustive background information, see the article
• Safety of nanomaterials in cosmetics: request for a scientific advice to SCCS, CosmeticOBS, 10 February 2020
Opinion
1. The SCCS is requested to determine the nanomaterials, as published in the recent catalogue of nanomaterials of 2019, for which specific concerns can be identified and justified in order to establish a priority list of nanomaterials for risk assessment (Article 16(4) Reg.1223/2009). More specifically, the SCCS is requested to …
