Solons press probe of beauty products

10/06/2008

Amid heightened public concern over the safety of milk and other dairy products entering the Philippine market, ranking members of the House of Representatives have also raised the alarm over the possibility that local beauty products might also contain toxic ingredients that have been banned or restricted in other countries for being health hazards.

Representatives Luis Villafuerte (Camarines Sur), Ferdinand Martin Romualdez (Leyte) and Aurelio Gonzales (Pampanga) filed House Resolution 760 asking Congress to investigate this possibility to protect the public from health risks and complications, including cancer.

Citing studies of the US National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Romualdez said nearly 900 of the chemicals used in cosmetics are toxic and have been linked to deadly side effects like skin cancer, skin allergies, asthma, interference with the endocrine (hormonal) system, impairment of reproduction, or damage a developing fetus.

He added the Personal Care and Safety Assessment findings shown an astounding one-third of all products assessed contained at least one ingredient that falls under the classification of human carcinogen (cancer-causing); and that 71 percent of the hair dye products evaluated had coal tar as an ingredient

which is also carcinogenic.

Also, 70 percent of the products reviewed were found to have ingredients tainted with impurities related to cancer and other health risks and complications, Romualdez said.

According to him, partial list of some of the ingredients used in hundreds of different skincare, cosmetics, hair care, body care and personal care products that had been classified as toxic by studies, include mineral oil, paraffin and petrolatum; parabens; sodium laurel or laurly sulfate (SLS); propylene glycol; formaldehyde; phenol (carbolic acid); acrylamide; toluene; dioxane; artificial coloring; artificial fragrance; coal tar; talc; silica; phthalates; resorcinol; lead acetate; and nitrosamines.

Romualdez thus asked the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) to review the chemical ingredients used in skincare, personal care, body care, hair care and cosmetic products and their corresponding side effects.

“In the Philippines, the BFAD does not require companies any mandatory testing for these personal care, skin care and cosmetic products for safety before they are sold in the market,” he noted.

Romualdez said due to lack of government monitoring, manufacturers of these types of products do not subject their products to any type of testing or safety standards but continue to produce and market their products using toxic ingredients.

He added these companies are free to make their own decisions and declarations on everything, from advertising claims to product quality even if several recent studies have shown them to cause health-damaging risks.

Romualdez added that the House would require BFAD to submit an action plan that should include safety nets against the use, marketing, selling, and trading of these risky chemical-based ingredients that pose serious health and safety concerns to the unsuspecting public.

Meanwhile, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago also yesterday some officials of the Bureau of Customs (BoC) should be held accountable for allowing the entry of melamine-tainted dairy products from China into the country.

“Why did these products manage to get into this country? Naturally, it passed through the BoC and it could have been barred if there’s no import authority from the BFAD,” she said in an interview over radio station dzBB.

While a number of concerned sectors address the issue of the presence of melamine-tainted products to the Department of Health (DoH) and BFAD, the senator raised what she noted as apparent responsibility as well of the BoC.

“The BoC has a deputy commissioner for enforcement and under this official is what we call as customs investigation and intelligence service. That’s their only task, to go after products that do not conform in our product safety standards,” she stressed.

Santiago pointed out that under the Consumer Welfare Act which provides the priority of best interest of the consumers, the DoH requires the company or manufacturer, distributor or seller to ensure that the product is of quality or safety standards.

“The DoH will then stamp the packaging with ‘Philippine standard certification mark’ and that is why most of the goods in the market should have the PSCM seal,” she added.

The senator said Customs inspectors should from the start have banned the importation of products which lacked safety requirements from the DoH.

“Clearly, they are the ones responsible. It’s clear that these are smuggled items. The labels are in Chinese characters and does not have any interpretation on it,” she added.

Sen. Pia Cayetano, for her part, said she will sponsor a bill today seeking to strengthen the BFAD which she considers the country’s “first line of defense” in ensuring consumer safety.

Cayetano is set to sponsor on second reading Senate Bill 2645 which aims to reconstitute the BFAD into the Food, Drugs, Cosmetics and Devices Administration (FDCDA).

Patterned after the structure of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) in the United States, the FDCDA will have expanded powers to enable the government to better monitor consumer goods in circulation and respond faster in emergency situations involving contaminated products that threaten public safety.

Under the proposal, the FDCDA will have complete testing laboratories in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao, as well as field offices in every region.

It will also establish the agency’s presence in major ports of entry across the archipelago to allow it to monitor and randomly inspect imported products for safety standards.

The measure will likewise expand the agency’s mandate to cover a wider range of goods and authorize it to conduct search and seizure of suspected products. Charlie V. Manalo and Angie M. Rosales

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