Navigating the Personal Care Products Safety Act

The bill proposes to overhaul a list of cosmetics ingredients, and to review around five ingredients every year to assess them for safety.

Many aspects of the bill, which is being proposed by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), incorporate elements of a string of other cosmetics safety bill initiatives that have been proposed over the past few years.

Winners and losers​

But there are winners and losers, with some cosmetics manufacturers looking to benefit from the ruling, but small- to medium-sized suppliers likely to be left out of pocket.

Like many in the industry, Angela Diesch, an attorney at law practice Kronick, Moskovitz & Girard, believes that the bill is adding to FDA oversight, as well as workload and costs for many suppliers.

“Obviously, these new oversight activities will be costly, so the bill also authorizes the FDA to collect user-fees from personal care products manufacturers, similar to what is done for drugs and medical devices,”​ said Diesch 

“The bill will also result in significant costs to cosmetic manufacturers - and is likely to be felt hardest by smaller companies.  Although the bill provides for an exemption from facility registration for ‘small businesses’, other aspects of the bill are enforceable against ‘small businesses’ - though at different time frames and in some instances to a lesser extent.”​

Take a look at the changes...​

The bill makes some significant changes to the existing federal law, and the differences have been outlined in a document that can be accessed by clicking here​.

Diesch believes that the hardest hit businesses will be those that have not already invested in extensive safety assessments, which would probably include a lot of businesses that are not already selling into Europe, where there are different criteria for safety assessments.

Likewise, smaller businesses that do not have facilities that would qualify under the standards for good manufacturing practice would also be hardest hit.

“If passed, this bill will result in a major overhaul to the cosmetics industry and FDA’s oversight.  This is a bill to watch and, perhaps, a reason to contact your legislators if you want your company’s story and to know how this bill will affect it,”​ Diesch said.