Pressure Points
Know your product:
Ingredient Communication & Transparency
Consumers are demanding transparency from all facets of
life and product manufacturers are stepping up to the
challenge. That’s why many household and commercial
product companies, in addition to longstanding voluntary
disclosure programs, supported California Senate Bill 258, the
Cleaning Product Right to Know Act, which was signed into law
on Oct. 15, 2017.
The Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA) was a
key negotiator of this landmark law that successfully balances consumer
and worker demands for more ingredient information with
complex implementation issues, including the need to protect
certain proprietary and confidential business information. This
law was a carefully crafted compromise developed through intense
non-governmental organization (NGO)/industry stakeholder
negotiations that resulted in an ingredient communication proposal
backed both by environmental advocates and name-brand
consumer product companies.
The law covers air care products, automotive products and
polish or floor maintenance products used primarily for domestic,
janitorial or institutional cleaning purposes. It also covers general
cleaning products, the definition of which includes the Federal
Insecticide, Fungicide & Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)-registered
products whose purpose is to disinfect, but in that case, only for
online disclosure.
How to comply with California SB-258? The most important
piece to compliance is rather obvious, but needs to be stated:
know your product. This will likely require an increased amount of
ingredient communication up and down the supply chain.
The new law utilizes a number of designated lists and requires
manufacturers to provide specific ingredient information, both on
label and online, which each have different requirements.
• On Product Labels: A list of each intentionally added
ingredient, an intentionally added ingredient that is on the
Proposition 65 list, and a list of each fragrance allergen included
on Annex III of the EU Cosmetics Regulation No. 1223/2009
as required to be labeled by the EU Detergents Regulation No.
648/2004 when present in the finished product at a concentration
at or above 0.01% (100 ppm). Intentionally added ingredients
and fragrance allergens (at or greater than 100 ppm in the
finished product) need to be listed on product labels by Jan. 1,
2021 while Proposition 65 chemicals need to be listed by Jan. 1,
2023. Confidential Business Information (CBI) can be exempted
from disclosure on the label. Fragrance ingredients and colorants
may be listed on the product label as “fragrances” or “colorants,”
provided that the fragrance ingredients are not allergens.
• Online Disclosure: A list of each intentionally added ingredient
except for CBI and fragrance ingredients that aren’t allergens
or on a designated list and a list of all nonfunctional constituents
at a concentration at or above 0.01% (100 ppm) (1,4-Dioxane is
to be listed at a concentration at or above 0.001% (10 ppm). If a
nonfunctional constituent is also listed pursuant to Proposition
65 and is less than the safe harbor threshold, it does not need to
be disclosed. The Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) number for
any disclosed ingredient should also be included unless it isn’t
available or protected by CBI. Each intentionally added ingredient
also needs to list its functional purpose, with fragrance ingredients
or colorants listing the function as “fragrance ingredient” or “colorant”
respectively. Electronic links for relevant designated lists
shall be grouped together in a single location for any disclosed
ingredient. All disclosure information needs to be posted no more
than five clicks from a URL on a product label and no more than
four clicks from a product-specific web page. Online disclosure
is required by Jan. 1, 2020, except for Proposition 65 chemicals,
which need to be listed by Jan. 1, 2023.
The law has also set out a hierarchy for the naming convention
of any disclosed ingredient. If a name is not available in those
systems, then a name from the next listed system shall be used (a
generic name is allowed to protect CBI). The order is as follows:
a) Consumer Specialty Products Association Consumer Product
Ingredients Dictionary (CSPA Dictionary) or International
Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI)
b) International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry nomenclature
(IUPAC)
c) Chemical Abstracts Index name
d) Common Chemical Name
The CSPA Dictionary is a web-based comprehensive technical
reference, with over 780 CSPA Dictionary names, more than
3,000 technical or other names and more than 1,000 trade names
used by 65 suppliers. The CSPA Dictionary allows for near instantaneous
updates and is continually revised to update existing
records and to include new ingredients.
I encourage all of you not familiar with the CSPA Consumer
Product Ingredient Dictionary to visit www.productingredients.com
and consider becoming involved. This is a tool that anyone can
subscribe to—not just CSPA members. Yes, the primary purpose
of the dictionary is ensuring standard ingredient nomenclature
and definitions; however, it is a valuable tool for formulation
chemists in R&D and regulatory compliance personnel (you can
find information on voluntary organic compound VOC status,
FIFRA 25b, Proposition 65 listings and other useful information
for each chemical). Ingredient suppliers can add ingredients and
brand names to be included, making them known to product
formulators. With retailers starting or expanding their chemical
management programs, and states other than California working
on their own ingredient disclosure requirements, this is a tool that
makes compliance easier, which is a win for both companies and
consumers. Spray
10 Spray December 2017
NICHOLAS GEORGES
Director, Scientific Affairs, CSPA