Overheard: The Best (and Worst) From Congressional Hearing on Cosmetic Safety
Tags: authority, best, budget, CFSAN, cosmetics, Energy and Commerce, FDA, FSMA, GMP, hearing, ingredients, Michael Landa, pink slime, quotes, regulation, Rep. Schakowsky, resources, statistics, testimony, user fees, worst
Below are some of our favorite quotes and exchanges from last week’s Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing, “Examining the Current State of Cosmetics.” If you haven’t read our first blog about it please read that here. What follows below are some of the more interesting quotes and exchanges from Michael Landa’s testimony portion of the hearing (our thoughts in italics):
“FDA’s current authority is principally post-market…the pre-market authority is limited to color additives… we have the authority to ban ingredients when we reach a finding that they’re not safe. That’s authority we exercise through rule-making…” – Michael Landa
“The request is for mandatory registration for firms domestic and foreign… the request also of course is for user fees.” – Michael Landa
“Of course”
“Where’s the fire? That we have to have these new authorities and these user fees? What’s the huge problem here that all of a sudden we need to enact some sort of federal authority? All it takes is one Facebook or one Twitter message and that product is deader than a door nail… why increase the regulatory burden?” – Rep. Joe Barton
Good point, a la “Pink Slime”
How many cosmetic companies are there? – Rep. Schakowsky
“We don’t have a complete list.” – Landa
How many chemical ingredients are used to formulate cosmetics? – Rep. Schakowsky
“We don’t have a complete list.” – Landa
“How many chemical ingredients have been banned for use in cosmetics in the United States?” – Rep. Schakowsky
“I think the number is about a dozen.” – Landa
“Actually I believe its 10.” – Rep. Schakowsky
“How many chemical ingredients have been banned for use in cosmetics in the EU?” – Rep. Schakowsky
“I don’t know.” – Landa
“That’s over 1200” – Rep. Schakowsky
And the Shocker (Understatement) of the hearing:
The FDA has “a total of about 50 full time equivalents to regulate a very large and growing industry… It’s a rather small program in light of the size of the industry” – Landa
Source:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearings/hearingdetail.aspx?NewsID=9394
Photo courtesy of Energy and Commerce Committee YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/energyandcommerce
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