THE chemicals in everyday products such as artificial musk in perfumes have been proved safe by comprehensive testing – right? Well maybe. In European Union countries mandatory testing did not begin for most chemicals until 1981, so those in use before then, including artificial musk, were not tested to the same standards.
The EU’s long-negotiated REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Approval of Chemicals) law, expected next year, is supposed to plug the gaps by forcing companies to test these chemicals. But the industry has been complaining about how much it will cost.
“Companies have complained about the cost of having to test chemicals already in use”…
