A group of people has been claiming that the FDA does not necessarily care about the quality of cosmetic products available in the market. The group claims that the EU has restrictions on more than 1000 products while FDA has restrictions on only nine. These people are looking to show FDA as an organization that does not do its work diligently.
The list of the substances not allowed by the EU has a total of 1,373 cosmetic products. But upon carefully looking at the list, it is clear that most of them are not cosmetics ingredients. Some of such substances include:
- Warfarin which is a cosmetic for rats
- Thalidomide
- Petroleum
- Ziram
- Picric acid
Other reasons given for the ban on some items include that they have a high percentage of some harmful substances. Products with 0.1% of butadiene or 3% of DMSO are on the list. This means that the products without the percentages of the banned substances are safe to use. There are a lot of substances in the list because of trivial reasons. Consequently, it is only fair to say that the EU list is not necessarily accurate. This is especially considering that almost half of the items should not be on the list.
Justification of How FDA Works
The fact that the FDA has nine potentially harmful substances shows that it actively checks the market’s cosmetics’ quality. People claiming that FDA does not work diligently must have gotten their facts wrong. These nine substances show that there are some levels of activities at the FDA. Without any activity level, the organization could be allowing every ingredient to be used in cosmetic products. The only thing FDA has not done is to regulate cosmetic products without proper consideration. A lot of factors are considered before any substance can be banned by FDA.
Final Verdict
It is clear that FDA executes its mandate without bias or exaggerated zeal. This results in some people assuming this organization is dormant. The AU statistics are a direct indicator of this, where unsuspecting people are made to believe that AU works more than the FDA. Even without trying to make FDA look good or defending it, it is evident that it is an effective organization that cares about the cosmetic products in the market.