Under the current FDA controls for prescription drugs, products ranging from oncology medication to toothpaste and surface disinfectants are all regulated under the same classification. These results act to effectively group cosmetics with more potent pharmaceuticals that subsequently carry a level of risk analysis not relevant to some products.
Revisions later in the year plan to address the broad nature of this definition, in order to ascertain a more appropriate framework for health care products only. A spokesperson for Health Canada commented that the newly applied regulations would take potential risk more into account to enable ‘the right level of insight’ is maintained for different category products.
The decision has been welcomed by the Cosmetics Alliance Canada (previous CCTFA), who state that the lack of definition in the products ‘has resulted in a host of regulatory requirements, intended and designed for higher risk prescription pharmaceuticals, being unnecessarily applied to much lower risk consumer health products.
Canada has in the past been criticized for its passive approach towards regulating chemical substances on the consumer market. Changes being made in response to this include efforts to update and streamline current regulations in line with those in the US. A recent decision to implement the GHS framework for product classification and labeling is also due to take effect in June 2015.
