Taiwan Further Regulates Lead and Arsenic Residues in Cosmetics

On 9 Jan 2014, "Taiwan Food and Drug Administration" (TFDA) issued the “Provision of Maximum Levels of Residual Heavy Metals (lead and arsenic) from Impurities in Cosmetics”, which is effective immediately.

The existing provision from TFDA’s Notice No. 0940306865 in 2005 mandates that lead, arsenic and their compounds are banned in any cosmetic products. Under the amended standard it is further specified that the residue concentration of lead and arsenic which are produced as byproducts of irreplaceable raw materials required during production or any other technically unavoidable factors during the manufacturing process, shall conform to certain maximum limits set in the new provision. In these instances lead and arsenic in finished products are limited to a maximum of 10 ppm and 3ppm, respectively.

Earlier, the TFDA also highlighted its restriction on mercury residues in cosmetics the maximum level of which is limited to 1ppm.

In 2012, mainland China's CFDA proposed to lower the maximum levels of lead and arsenic in cosmetics from 40ppm, 10ppm to 10ppm and 4ppm respectively (Chemlinked News 7 Dec 2012). The new standard in China is designed to dramatically decrease the concentration of these two extremely toxic and bioaccumulative metals in cosmetics however an official notice of implementation has not been issued so far.

Reference Link

Provision of Maximum Levels of Residual Heavy Metals (lead and arsenic) from Impurities in Cosmetics (CH)

TFDA Release (Mercury, in Chinese)