The European Commission called upon the Committee to look into the preservative used in oral hygiene products, skin lotions and deodorants, and the silver-containing phosphate glass powder that’s generally mixed with glass to be used in consumer cosmetics packaging as a preservative.
The use of cetylpyridinium chloride in pc products
According to the SCCS; cetylpyridinium chloride (Colipa No P 97) was submitted in March 2005 by COLIPA to which the Committee adopted at its 7th plenary meeting back in March 2006 with the following conclusion...
"In view of the poor quality of the toxicological data presented in the current dossier, the SCCP requires a new dossier to be submitted in which data is provided to all relevant toxicological end-points and conforming to currently accepted standards."
Thereafter; a second submission for the ingredient was submitted in July 2011 by Cosmetics Europe, supplemented by separately submitted data that was intended to demonstrate the safety of the ingredient for use as preservative in various categories of cosmetic products.
In this instance, the SCCS was called upon to consider if the ingredient is safe for consumers, when used as a preservative in cosmetic products such as mouthwash up to a concentration of 0.1 per cent, all other oral hygiene products up to a concentration of 0.5 per cent, skin lotions and creams up to a concentration of 0.2 and anti-perspirant deodorants up to 2.0 per cent.
Safety of EcoG+
In regards to EcoG+, the Committee recieved submissions in June 2012. "The proposed new preservative is silver-containing phosphate glass, a powder consisting of small glass beads, and is intended as an appropriate polymer and used to manufacture composite materials for cosmetic product packaging."
The achieved level of the active component (i.e. silver) in 'EcoG+' is 2 per cent; the proportion envisaged for use in the packaging material is 3 per cent. On use of the composite material as cosmetic product packaging, small amounts of silver ions are released into the cosmetic product, where it is intended to have a preservative function.
In this instance the SCCS has been called on to consider if the ingredient is safe for use as preservative with a concentration of maximum 2.0 per cent in the cosmetic packaging material taking into account the scientific data provided? And/or does it recommend any further restrictions to its use as a preservative in cosmetics packaging?