This article pinpoints two important facts : American want stronger regulation of cosmetics in the US in order to protect beauty customers in their personal care but this also highlights a willingness for more protectionism of american skincare business in the US.

WASHINGTON – A survey released today by the Mellman Group and American Viewpoint shows that voters overwhelmingly support stricter regulation of the chemical ingredients used in their personal care products.

More specifically:  

94 percent believe that companies should be required to notify the government when their products injure consumers.
87 percent believe federal officials should have the authority to recall personal care products found to contain toxic chemicals.
87 percent want stricter regulation of personal care products.
74 percent are less likely to purchase products from companies that fight regulation.
 
Almost two-thirds of likely voters want their cosmetics to be safe.
 
A third are under the mistaken impression that the government has cleared most of the chemicals used in personal care products. 
 
“These poll results show that Americans want to ensure that the personal care products they use each and every day are safe,” said Scott Faber, vice president of government affairs at EWG. “Few consumers have any idea how minimal the current regulation of chemicals is. No other class of products is so widely used, and in such large quantities, with so few safeguards.”

There is very little regulation of the $60 billion-a-year personal care products industry. The federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act, which was supposed to guarantee the safety of cosmetics, is nearly 80 years old and falls far short of ensuring that cosmetics are safe.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have introduced a bipartisan bill to close this regulatory gap. It would require companies to ensure that their products are safe before putting them on the market and give the Food and Drug Administration the tools it needs to protect the public. The legislation, titled the Personal Care Products Safety Act, would strengthen federal regulations that have remained largely unchanged since 1938, requiring the FDA to review five potentially risky cosmetics ingredients each year and giving it the agency authority to ban or restrict ingredients based on these assessments.

This is the first time that federal legislation on this issue has earned the support of both consumer and industry groups including the Personal Care Products Council, leading cosmetic companies and major public health organizations.

[READ THE FULL ARTICLE]

By Kenneth Artz (KArtz@heartland.org) research fellow for health policy at The Heartland

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) introduced the Safe Cosmetics Modernization Act (SCMA) in the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2015.

Sessions said in a statement given while introducing the bill that it would streamline and strengthen consumer safety requirements without “strangling small businesses in the cosmetic industry with onerous regulations.”

“[SCMA] creates uniform standards and provides entrepreneurs and innovators in the cosmetic industry with the opportunities they need to compete in both national and international marketplaces by modernizing outdated regulations,” said Sessions in his statement.

[READ MORE]