The ‘challenge’ that the sector currently faces is that under proposed EU rules, fragrance ingredients will no longer be regulated on the basis of their dose, exposure and end use, but rather on their intrinsic properties. This is to say, they could be restricted because of what they contain not because of how they are meant to be used.
Such an approach, if implemented without consideration for the specific characteristics of fragrance could hammer entire olfactive families. These families make up the scents known and loved by consumers around the world, and their absence would be felt – and smelled!
— Read more in Building a future for European fragrance in a time of changing rules at EURACTIV.
The EU just seems bound and determined to destroy their perfume industry.
Seriously. You can find the draft amendment, it came out last September I think, but I did not even want to read it.
What does that even mean? Dose, exposure and end-use are scientific and it’s how the safety of chemicals has been determined for eons. “Intrinsic properties” means nothing.
I assume what they mean is that if something is a known allergen, it’s forbidden at any dose? But I am not investigating because at the moment I don’t even want to know.
“Intrinsic properties” is not only unscientific, but anti-scientific. It implies there is no safe dose of anything. In practice, it seems to come down to, “If we don’t like it, it’s out.”
But, in a world where businesses can get awards for imposing a fragrance-free workplace, I shouldn’t be surprised.