SCCP Notes of Guidance
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
The European Commission's Scientific Committee on Consumer Products revises for the sixth time its Notes of Guidance on the testing and safety evaluation of cosmetic ingredients - this time to aid compliance with the sixth and seventh amendments to the EU Cosmetics Directive by addressing use of the most state-of-the-art in vitro testing methods for the reduction, refinement and replacement of in vivo animal tests. The revision was adopted during a December 2006 plenary meeting. The sixth and seventh amendments cooperatively ban the testing of cosmetic products on animals and the marketing of products tested on animals. The seventh amendment is slated to go into effect in 2009, provided that validated alternative testing methods are developed. The reworked guidance also addresses testing of hair dye components, coloring agents, preservatives and UV absorbing/reflecting substances. SCCP released a review of safety data for four hair dye ingredients in November (1"The Rose Sheet" Nov. 6, 2006, p. 4)...