Cosmetics Europe often sets up these kinds of programs to encourage knowledge sharing within industry and to monitor the safety of products on the market, having done so in the recent past for formaldehyde, phenoxyethanol, among other ingredients.
The Hair Colour Product Safety (HCPS) consortium calls on experts to share information on the aforementioned topics and to ensure the continued use of this group of ingredients and products under the EU legislations.
“This consortium is a continuation of the work conducted for many years by a consortium of the main producers of hair dyeing products,” explains a Cosmetics Europe statement.
Scope
The scope of the consortium consists of some ingredient-specific tasks and activities related to various EU regulations, as detailed in the draft consortium contract, with the deadline for response to this call being the end of 2014.
Cosmetics Europe suggests that companies interested to actively contribute to the consortium’s activities can join at any time after this date, provided they contribute to a share of the costs already incurred by the other Members, as also indicated in the draft consortium contract.
Documents and safety information related to more horizontal issues like allergy to hair colouring products and the allergy alert test, are also due to be prepared.
Consortia
The technical consortia under Cosmetics Europe are self-funded consortia, which are open to Cosmetics Europe members as well as non-members including suppliers.
Consortium members will accept to contribute a share of the costs incurred by the consortium and to accept the conditions stipulated in the draft consortium contract, which foresee a market-share based cost sharing mechanism as well as a 5% minimum contribution per company.
Consortium costs can entail costs for legal support, technical support from an external consultant, purchase of data, funding of studies, etc.