Walmart Inc., which aimed for a 10% reduction in use of priority chemicals in beauty, personal care and household cleaning products sold in stores by 2022, is years ahead of its goal.

Lawmakers in Hawaii and other jurisdictions may be left wanting by the National Academies of Sciences' sunscreen report, but industry groups were pleased with the academy's findings and recommendations to the EPA. The Personal Care Products Council says it confirms that scientific data are insufficient at present to conduct “realistic” ecological risk assessments of UV filters or support their bans.

Especially if the program eventually will be made mandatory, the US FDA must engage more with drug industry representatives – including OTC – as its plan for quality metric reporting continues taking shape, the trade association says.

A National Academies of Sciences report is expected in coming weeks on the environmental impacts of sunscreen ingredients and potential human health issues associated with changing use patterns. But Hawaii County legislators decided they couldn’t wait for new information to come to light, voting yes on a measure to ban sales of non-mineral sunscreens, which became law on 8 July.

California is taking a closer look at the safety of four potentially harmful ingredients in nail products and has named triphenyl phosphate specifically as a possible Priority Product under the state’s Safer Consumer Products regulation.

Exactly what is in airbrush-delivered cosmetics, and how they are used by consumers, are not well understood by Cosmetic Ingredient Review, its expert panel, or the US FDA. At their June meeting, CIR’s independent experts debated who should be responsible for assessing airbrush cosmetics and how safety unknowns should be communicated.