New Approaches to Evaluation of a Toxicological Profile of Cosmetic Productsand their Components

Overview

The purpose of this paper is to review current approaches to toxicological profile evaluation ofcosmetic preparations and substances in Europe. Cosmetic substances as well as final products mustbe safe for consumers. The law 76/768/EEC with appendices regulates this area in European Community.It is required that cosmetic substances subdue the basic toxicological tests, including acutetoxicity, subchronical toxicity, eye and skin irritability, sensibilisation, percutaneous absorption,phototoxicity, photoirritation and mutagenicity. The safety evaluation of a final product depends onits way of use. It is necessary to take in an account quantity and frequency of product use, consumertarget group, concentration and toxicological profile of used substances.Nowadays, evaluation of a final products is based on combination of information sources likeavailable databases, information about composition of products, in vitro tests and results of studieson human volunteers. Regarding cosmetic substances it is in particular cases necessary to performtests in vivo on laboratory animals, because not for all tests required does a validated alternativemethods exist.

Key words:
safety evaluation - cosmetics - in vitro - validation - alternative methods