In recent years, cosmetics safety has become a major concern for consumers in China. NMPA has made a series of attempts to rectify issues in the cosmetics market and improve public awareness of cosmetics safety. On 20th May, National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) launched the First National Cosmetic Safety Public Awareness Week which will become an annual occurrence beginning in late May each year.
Focus of the launching ceremony
During the launch ceremony, Yan Jiangying, Deputy Director of NMPA pointed out that when it comes to cosmetics protecting public safety requires social co-governance, which should focus on four aspects of work:
to implement the main responsibility of the enterprises;
to strengthen the self-discipline of the industry;
to innovate the means of supervision and use information technology to build a supervision network
to raise consumer awareness of cosmetic safety.
At the same time as the launching ceremony, eight mainstream E-commerce platforms, including Alibaba and JD, released a proposal for building a standardized cosmetics sales market. All platforms are required to add product usage disclaimers and instructions on the product display page to remind the public to use makeup responsibly and jointly maintain a safe and orderly cosmetics market [2].
Cosmetics Supervision App
During the ceremony a mobile App called Cosmetics Supervision was launched by NMPA which attracted great public attention and trended on Weibo on 21st May. As of 22nd May, the download volume has reached 350, 000.
This App is supported by the database of NMPA and has 3 main functions.
Searching
This function is mainly divided into two parts.
The first PRODUCT SEARCH, including registration/filing information of domestic cosmetics and imported cosmetics entered into China through general trade. After inputting the name of products, users will see product basic information, like name, country of production, manufacturer, and responsible agent/person in China.
The second is to INFORMATION SEARCH, which includes cosmetics administrative licensing inspection agency, domestic non-special use cosmetics filing agency, cosmetics production license certified enterprises and cosmetics sampling.
Scanning
Users can also simply get products’ official information by scanning the bar code on the products. And the product details are also linked to the qualification of the production enterprise. However, there are some exceptions. Information of products which entered into China through CBEC cannot be found in this way since they do not require registration/filing with NMPA. And because some imported beauty products’ bar code are from foreign code agencies, their information also cannot be found by scanning.
Complaint
The App also accepts complaints and reports of suspected illegal activities relating to substandard quality of pharmaceuticals, medical devices and cosmetic products. Individuals or businesses can report by uploading identity information (anonymity) and respondent information.
The promotion of this App will help to crackdown on illegal products and non-special use cosmetics illegally claiming efficacy of special-use cosmetics. The complaint function will also help to strengthen the supervision of illegal enterprises.
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