Asked by The New FactoryL’Oréal management indicated that “more than 99% of the portfolio concerned has been reformulated without PFAS” and that the group “will reach 100% by the end of 2024”. According to Vertthe French giant has also removed PFAS from the list of ingredients of certain products on the internet. The Pierre Fabre group, accused of marketing a sunscreen containing polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), affirmed Vert that “the composition of the mineral fluid was changed in January 2023 and PTFE was removed”. The Kiko company, for its part, did not respond to requests from Vert and of The New Factory.
If the use of PFAS in several industrial sectors is well known, it is much less known in cosmetics, including by researchers. “To my knowledge, we are the only French team to have worked on the subject», indicated Laurence Coiffard, teacher-researcher at the faculty of pharmacy at the University of Nantes. She is co-author of a qualitative study on the presence of the famous substances in 765 products present on the French and European market, published last May. Its results? 11 molecules belonging to the PFAS family were discovered in 29 products among the 765. Only makeup is concerned; hygiene and well-being products and perfumes are exempt. “I was shocked to see PTFE in lipstickconfides the researcher. However, the cosmetic industry knows how to do very well without these molecules, as shown by all the products that do not contain them!»
The sector is ready to stop PFAS
And that’s right. The industry knows how to produce beauty and well-being products without using these substances: it says so itself. “If Cosmetics Europe does not have data at European level concerning the use of PFAS in cosmetics, they are not typical ingredients for our industry”, we can read in a text from the organization which represents the interests of industry to the European Union.
The text in questionpublished in October 2023, recommends that manufacturers in the sector completely stop all use of molecules from this – gigantic – family by the end of 2025. In a reportsubmitted to the government by the deputy (MoDem) of Rhône, Cyrille Isaac-Sibille, in January 2024, it is further indicated that “certain sectors say they are ready to stop the use and implementation of PFAS such as cosmetics” .
“Every substitution implies a reformulation”
But if the industry doesn’t need them, why does it use them? “Overall, we use 30,000 ingredients in cosmeticsexplains Emmanuel Guichard, general delegate of the federation of beauty companies (FEBEA). We used products that one day found themselves cataloged PFAS. But because we don’t use them for their specific PFAS properties, like their persistence or hydrophobicity, it’s easy to stop their use.»
The cosmetics industry is accustomed to ingredients that find themselves banned from use, and substitutions of these are regular, even if they require revising recipes. “We can never replace one molecule by another without changing anything else, so any substitution implies a reformulationwhich happens about every three years anyway, indicates Emmanuel Guichard. I don’t think replacing PFAS generates additional costs.»
Substituting these dangerous molecules would not increase the costs for manufacturers, including in terms of quality control. “Except in toothpastes, our products are not supposed to contain fluoride, so just measure the fluoride at the factory. This is not a routine measure, but it is doable», Says the agricultural engineer by training.
Eight molecules mainly used
For Emmanuel Guichard, the total cessation of PFAS is a question of time, even if “we are never safe from a small business that maintains their use“. However, it is difficult to know exactly how many ingredients of this type are still included in cosmetics. A study conducted by INCI Beauty and cited in the Isaac-Sibille report, an application, similar to Yuka, which allows consumers to consult the ingredients of products (cosmetic only) and rate them, shows that in January 2023, only 8 molecules were still each introduced in at least 100 products.
Contacted by L’Usine Nouvelle, Jean-Christophe Janicot, founder of the application, indicated that at present, “48 ingredients were present in at least one composition» and that «4,759 cosmetic products contain at least one PFAS, out of our total product database, which may contain products that are no longer on sale“. Soon, there should no longer be PFAS in beauty products. The PFAS law, which notably includes the ban on their use in cosmetics from January 2026, could be made obsolete before it even exists.
Banned PFAS found in European products
On October 30, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced that it had found prohibited ingredients in the compositions of 285 cosmetic products out of 4,500 cosmetic products studied, across 13 countries (France is not one of them). The ingredients in question are mainly silicones banned by the organic and persistent pollutants regulation and REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals). But we also find PFAS, because although there is – not yet – legislation that affects all of the approximately 12,000 molecules included in this category, some are still banned, such as perfluoronyl dimethicone, especially present in lip and eye pencils, and which is both a PFAS and a silicone. Concerning non-banned PFAS, a general restriction, currently being studied, was submitted to ECHA in January 2023 by five countries. In France, the PFAS law, which must prohibit their use in several industries, including cosmetics, must be examined at second reading by the National Assembly, sine die.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
