REACH and Chemicals
The cosmetics industry’s overriding objective is to provide safe, innovative products.
Cosmetics manufacturers welcome their responsibility for safety, the cornerstone of their unceasing drive for new cosmetic products with ever greater efficacy.
To achieve innovation, scientists in the cosmetics industry need access to the widest possible range of ingredients for the products they formulate. They must be confident that the substances they use are safe.
That is why the cosmetics industry participated actively in the development and legal adoption of the new REACH system for the registration and management of chemicals in Europe. A key objective was to ensure that consumer confidence is further improved.
The European Union’s (EU) REACH Regulation brings together a patchwork of previous Directives and Regulations to identify and control the risks and possible hazards of all chemical substances available on the European market.
The Regulation’s fundamental purpose is to ensure that no substance adversely affects human health or the environment, under normal and reasonably foreseeable conditions of use. It came into force in June 2007 and registration and pre-registration of chemicals has been required since June 2008.