Consumer group points to nanoproduct boom ahead of regulation
While consumer group voices concern, study suggests nanomaterial safety
The European Consumers’ Organisation (BEUC) says the number of personal care products incorporating nanoparticles is growing even as the EU debates forging a nanotechnology regulation.
In a survey this year, the BEUC found nanomaterials in 475 consumer products, compared to 151 in 2009, including a wide range of cosmetics, such as nanogold wrinkle cream, hair treatment products, hair dyes and cellulite gel.
BEUC director general Monique Goyens said: “Our inventory shows that hundreds of products are on sale today to European consumers without assessment of their claims or the risks these nanomaterials may pose to public health. This game of health and safety roulette must end.”
The claims come as EU scientists continue to probe rubbing nanoparticles onto the skin, with some results indicating it is safe. The EU-funded project ENPRA (risk assessment of engineered nanoparticles) has been assessing TiO2 nanoparticles in cosmetics. Lang Tran, of the Institute of Occupational Medicine, Scotland, told a European Commission briefing note: “The particles stay on the other layer of the skin, they don’t go deep enough. You also have to bear in mind that the particles are part of mixtures in cosmetics so they tend to agglomerate and that means that they are hindered in this way to go far into the skin.”