The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has recently added Decamethyltetrasiloxane and 1,1,1,3,5,5,5-heptamethyl-3-[(trimethylsilyl)oxy]trisiloxane to its list of chemicals that could potentially harm people or the environment.
Both chemicals can be used in cosmetics and personal care products across a variety of categories and the government agency is advising manufacturers to check formulations.
The ECHA said its Candidate List of substances of very high concern (SVHC) now contains 250 entries for chemicals that can harm people or the environment. It also added that some of the substances on the list are groups of chemicals, which means that the overall number of impacted chemicals is higher than that number.
“Companies are responsible for managing the risks of these chemicals and giving customers and consumers information on their safe use,” the government agency declared in the document.
“If an article contains a Candidate List substance above a concentration of 0.1 % (weight by weight), suppliers have to give their customers and consumers information on how to use it safely,” it said.
Both producers and importers of ingredients and products that contain the substances must notify the ECHA if their product contains one of the substances within six months of 25th June 2025). EU and EEA suppliers of substances on the Candidate List will also have to update the safety data sheet for customers.
Cosmetics regulations in the spotlight
The EU’s changing regulations for chemicals used in cosmetics products has recently been in the spotlight.
According to the news outlet Politico, the European Union is “gearing up to relax the rules around what sort of cancer-causing chemicals are allowed in cosmetics, in a red-tape slashing exercise that consumer groups warn could put people’s health at risk.”
Politico said it obtained a draft proposal and accompanying document in which the European Commission proposes “simplifying a set of EU chemical laws spanning cosmetics, fertiliser and chemical classification regulations in a “chemicals omnibus” bill.”
The news outlet also said that the EU would be “tweaking rules around carcinogens in cosmetics, simplifying laws on advertising and labelling hazardous chemicals, requiring producers to put less precise information in ads and on the front of certain packaging.”
However, cosmetics industry trade bodies in the EU and the UK have previously voiced concerns about cosmetics regulations taking an increasingly hazard-based approach to the point that some substances are being outlawed even when used in quantities that are not proven to be dangerous to human health or the environment.
