The cosmetic ingredient review: a status report

The cosmetic industry, with the advice of individuals familiar with food and drug safety assessment, set up a Cosmetic Ingredient Review panel of experts and an attendant staff in the fall of 1976, which began to function in July 1977. Its structure and role were carefully developed by a steering committee to assure the independence and credibility of the expert panel's deliberations and decisions and the ultimate publication of a final report on each of many ingredients. That report must conclude 1) that there is reasonable certainty that the ingredient is safe under conditions of use, 2) that it is unsafe, or 3) that the evidence is inadequate to make such a judgment. There is considerable variability in the adequacy of the safety assessments or the assessments of safety in the literature and unpublished reports on ingredients that have been reviewed to date.