ASEAN Updates 5 Changes to Cosmetic Ingredients in the Annexes of ACD

On November 12-13, 2019 the 31st ASEAN Cosmetic Scientific Body (ACSB) meeting was held in Muntinlupa City, Philippines. During the meeting, 5 changes to cosmetic ingredients in the Annexes of the ASEAN Cosmetic Directive (ACD) were adopted by the ACSB.

The 5 changes relate to 1 prohibited ingredient, 1 restricted ingredient, and 3 preservatives, shown in the table below:

No.	Annex	Ref. No.	Content	Before	After	Note
1	Annex II Part 1 – List of substances which must not form part of the composition of cosmetic products	221	Substance	Mercury and its compounds except those special cases included in Annex VI, Part 1	Mercury and its compounds
1		221	CAS Number	7439-97-6	7439-97-6 54-64-8 62-38-4/94-43-9
2	Annex III-Part 1-List of substances which cosmetic products must not contain except subject to restrictions and conditions laid down	288	Substance	5-Chloro-2- (2,4- dichlorophenoxy) phenol Triclosan Singapore only: Pending inclusion in Annex III until a review of Triclosan for non-preservative use is completed.	5-Chloro-2- (2,4- dichlorophenoxy) phenol Triclosan Singapore only: Not permitted for non-preservative use
3	Annex VI – Part 1 – List of preservatives allowed for use in cosmetic products	16	Substance	Thiomersal (INN)	--	Removed from the list
4		17	Substance	Phenylmercuric salts (including borate)	--	Removed from the list
5		32	Substance	1-(4-Chlorophenoxy)-1-(imidazol-1-yl)-3,3-dimethylbutan-2-one) (+) Climbazole	1-(4-Chlorophenoxy)-1-(imidazol-1-yl)-3,3-dimethylbutan-2-one) (+) Climbazole	To remove the (+)* is because Climbazole has been included under Ref. 326 of Annex III for uses other than preservative

Note *: The substances marked with the symbol (+) may also be added to cosmetic products in a concentration other than those laid down in this ANNEX for other purposes apparent from the presentation of the products, e.g. as deodorants in soaps or as anti-dandruff agents in shampoos.

All the changes above were scheduled to be effective upon release in the 10 ASEAN Member States. However, the ACSB is welcoming any feedback on the implementation date from the industry by 31 Dec 2019. So the implementation date may be subject to further changes.