EU sees heightened hazardous cosmetic chemicals trade after targeting “severely restricted” benzene

20 Dec 2023 --- The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) says more hazardous chemical products were imported and exported from the bloc in 2022 compared to 2021. ECHA attributes the boost to the addition of benzene to a list of chemicals under the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) regulation that same year.

ECHA’s annual report on the trade of chemicals banned or severely restricted in the EU shows imports of PIC chemicals increased over 20-fold, from about 883 thousand tons in 2021 to almost 20 million tons in 2022 — after benzene was targeted.

According to ECHA, substances containing benzene were the first “substance in substance” entry under the PIC Regulation, with 96% (18.8 million tons) of imports reported in 2022 concerning these substances.

The report also points to a one-year jump of 24% in 2021 in exports bound for non-EU countries that contained banned or severely restricted chemicals. Three EU countries and Northern Ireland said they had not exported the substances.

Data compilation
ECHA tells Personal Care Insights it does not have data on single companies, does not take policy decisions and that “all follow-up or eventual penalties are also the member states’ responsibility.”

The agency says 24 countries in the EU and 543 companies provided data regarding 2022 exports of PIC chemicals. Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta and the UK said no PIC chemicals were exported that year.   

Benzene prohibited in personal care products.Concerning imports, 21 EU countries and Northern Ireland provided data with information from 191 companies. Six member states, including Bulgaria and Slovakia, said they had not imported PIC chemicals in 2022.

The PIC Regulation is aimed at EU exporters and importers who must “inform their designated national authorities (DNAs) about trade in PIC chemicals in the preceding year.”. 

Each EU Member State is then expected to provide ECHA with aggregated information so the agency can compile it and make the “non-confidential information publicly available.”

Benzene prohibited in personal care products
The European Commission prohibits benzene use in cosmetics, and it is restricted in the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic.

Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden submitted a proposal last January to ECHA to restrict per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) under REACH.

Previously, personal care companies unintentionally released batches of products laced with benzene and had to recall their products due to health-risk.

Earlier this year, Edgewell Personal Care modified its announcement to recall its Banana Boat hair and scalp sunscreen spray SPF 30 with three batches of additional sunscreen found to be contaminated with benzene. It was the company’s second voluntary nationwide recall in two years.

Edgewell said benzene was not a component in its sunscreen spray, rather it was detected as a result of the propellant spraying the product from the container.

A similar case was observed at Unilever for its Bed Head, Dove and Tresemmé dry shampoo aerosol products.

By Anita Sharma and Venya Patel