On September 9th, the European Parliament had a debate on amendments to the Cosmetics Directive. Dr. Hadwen Trust, a leading non-animal research charity in the UK, seized this opportunity to urge European Parliamentarians to ban nanomaterials in cosmetics and also other non-essential, non-medical applications of nanotechnology.

Although nanotechnology is a fairly recent technology, nanomaterials are already used in a range of everyday products like cosmetic and household products, paints and food. However, very little is known to date about the health risks posed by these materials. According to the Dr. Hadwen Trust, current methods used for assessing the safety of nanomaterials, which are based on animal testing, are highly inadequate.

Dr. Gill Langley, Science Director at the Dr. Hadwen’s Trust, points out that humans can react very differently to chemicals than animals do. That’s why new, non-animal safety tests need to be developed as soon as possible in order to obtain reliable information about safety for humans.

Until new methods are available, the EU should follow a precautionary approach and ban nanomaterials from all non-essential products so as to avoid that people are needlessly exposed to potential harm.