CIR Panel Affirms Paraben Safety, Will Investigate Infant Skin Properties

With parabens’ use in infant products coming under scrutiny abroad, the CIR Expert Panel intends to learn more about how infant skin reacts to personal-care products. However, the panel maintains its 2006 “safe as used” assessment for parabens.

The Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel has opted not to re-open a review of parabens following changes to European guidance on the preservative ingredient, but instead views the concerns of overseas experts as cause for examining the differentiating factors in infant skin.

In a revised opinion issued in late 2011 – after Denmark instituted a plan to prohibit parabens in cosmetics for young children due to concerns about endocrine disruption – the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety acknowledged that parabens could pose a risk to infants when used in diaper-area products Also see "

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