FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DECEMBER 19, 2022

CONTACT
Erika Wilhelm, Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, media@bcpp.org, 415.539.5005
Janet Nudelman, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, janet@bcpp.org, 415.321.2909

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Breast Cancer Prevention Partner (BCPP) and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC) strongly urge congressional leaders to reject the inclusion of the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulations Act of 2022 as a rider in the end-of-year spending bill.

While the proposal contains some good policies that would enhance the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authority and oversight of the cosmetics industry, its weak safety standard and far-reaching preemption clause would severely impact the ability of California and over a dozen other states to legislate on cosmetic safety.

Section 608(c) of the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 creates an untested, unproven safety standard that has no legal standing, legislative history, or logical reason to replace the more commonly accepted “reasonable certainty of no harm” standard, which has been the FDA’s own standard for the safety of food additives and colors in cosmetics for more than 50 years.

Similarly problematic is Section 614(a) of the Senate’s cosmetic safety bill, an alarmingly broad provision that preempts the states from establishing or continuing any cosmetic safety law addressing registration and product listing, good manufacturing practices, recordkeeping, recalls, adverse event reporting, or safety substantiation.

“Similar to the privacy legislation debate, we must not move backward by preempting strong state protections and replacing them with a weaker federal standard. We commend Chair Murray and Ranking Member Burr for their proposal’s many good components. But the unproven safety standard and sweeping preemption are too high a price to pay. We can’t sacrifice the ability of states like California to protect their residents from unsafe chemical exposures—both in terms of existing law and future cosmetic safety protections—when the federal bill sets such a perilously low bar,” said Janet Nudelman, Director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. “We thank the many members of California’s Congressional Delegation for sounding the alarm on these dangerous provisions.”

In September 2022, when the FDASLA Act of 2022 was first considered, 100 of the nation’s leading clean cosmetic companies, environmental health and justice organizations, and consumer groups joined BCPP on a letter to House and Senate leaders emphatically objecting to the Senate bill’s inclusion of a dangerously weak safety standard and far-reaching preemption provision.

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Breast Cancer Prevention Partners (BCPP) is the leading national science-based policy and advocacy organization working to prevent breast cancer by eliminating environmental exposures and toxic chemicals linked to the disease.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC), a program of BCPP, protects people and the planet from toxic chemicals by educating the public; transforming the beauty industry to make products safer; and advocating for health-protective laws that benefit everyone regardless of where they live, work, or shop.