This Article is brought to you by SpecialChem regarding changing regulations on sunscreen in Australia and New Zealand.
NICNAS is consulting on the regulatory impacts on industry, community, and government of the proposed adoption of the revised Australian and New Zealand Sunscreen Standard (AS/NZS 2604: 2012 Sunscreen products – Evaluation and classification) in the Cosmetic Standard 2007. If adopted in the Cosmetic Standard 2007, the revised Sunscreen Standard would be applicable to all cosmetic sunscreen products regulated by NICNAS.
The main changes that would affect cosmetic sunscreens products on the proposed adoption of the revised Sunscreen Standard 2012 include:
raising the maximum Sun Protection Factor (SPF) from 30+ to 50+ for face and nail products.
limiting the permitted SPF claims to 4, 6, 8, 10, 15 for skin care products and 4, 6, 8, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50+ for face and nail products.
making broad spectrum performance mandatory for all skin care cosmetic sunscreens and for face and nail sunscreen products with SPF 30 and above, and
changing the criteria for categorization of protection as low, moderate (or medium), high or very high, in accordance with the wider range of claimed SPF.
Over the past six years, Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand have been revising the Sunscreen Standard and bringing it into line with scientific developments and improvements in sunscreens and sunscreen standards applied in other developed countries. The revised Sunscreen Standard (AS/NZS 2604:2012 Sunscreen products – Evaluation and classification) was published on 30 May 2012. However, the NICNAS Cosmetics Standard 2007 still requires compliance with the old Sunscreen Standard (AS/NZS 2604:1998).
