KUALA LUMPUR: After eight years of running free and circumventing regulations at every available opportunity to maximise their profits, errant cosmetics manufacturers and sellers will again come under tighter control.
The magnitude of health issues and problems posed by many of these unscrupulous businesses, as exposed by the New Straits Times’ Special Probes Team in its explosive, three-part investigative piece last week, has prompted the Health Ministry to revisit its monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, which could impact the Asean Cosmetics Directive, which the country adopted in 2008.
Under the current system, which was introduced in the spirit of promoting the growth of the industry in the region, those intending to market cosmetics, including imported ones, only had to go online and notify the ministry of their impending sale. The system puts the onus on the sellers to act in good faith and be transparent about what they put in their products.
Now, as the sector is spiralling out of control, with hundreds of thousands of cosmetics having been “notified” for sale, regulators agree that they have to be reined in, for the sake of public health.
If the decision is to revert to the previous system, it will mean that those intending to market cosmetics must register their products with the ministry. This will also automatically require them to prove that their cosmetics are safe for use.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya acceded that there was a dire need to plug loopholes.
The team sat with him at his office in Putrajaya yesterday and showed him images and video footage of the indiscretions carried out by irresponsible players in the industry. He was also shown the endless stream of comments on NST Online’s Facebook page with regard to this paper’s in-depth investigation, and read the consternation and worry expressed by the public.
After the screening of the third undercover footage, he leaned back and again acceded that more needed to be done to protect the public from harmful cosmetics.
“It is true that on the part of the ministry, we monitor them through our post-market surveillance, where we pick up samples and test them for harmful substances.
“We cannot allow any holes in the system, as by the time these products are picked up and recalled from the market, many consumers could have already been adversely affected by the use of these tainted cosmetics.
“We need to review regulations governing the cosmetics industry... We admit that the current system is rather loose and the need for a change is paramount,” he told the NST.
Dr Hilmi told the team that discussions with the ministry’s Pharmaceutical Services Division would be held soon to map out the safeguards needed to be put in place.
In mid-discussion with the NST Special Probes Team, Dr Hilmi picked up his phone and spoke to the head of the division and called for a meeting to be held after lunch today.
He told the team that the matter would be brought up at the ministry’s next post-cabinet meeting.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had, in an immediate response to the queries posed by the team recently following the expose, expressed the ministry’s deep concern about the sale of cosmetic products whose quality and safety could not be established.
He said holders of “notification notes” issued by the ministry had an obligation to be truthful about the ingredients in their cosmetic products, adding that the formulation used should also be declared in the Product Information File.
Datuk Nadzim Johan, who heads the Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association, said the association felt that industry players were not ready to be given full trust in marketing their cosmetics.
Nadzim agreed with the team that cosmetics meant for the consumer market must first be tested for their safety. This, he said, would also prevent sellers, driven by profit, from feigning ignorance and shifting the blame to manufacturers when their harmful products were exposed.
The “notification” system, he added, had to go as it gave consumers no assurance or guarantee that the cosmetics were safe, more so when they were never tested for their ingredients.
This, he added, was evident in the frequent recalls that the ministry had to initiate after allowing several products to be sold in the market, only to discover later that they contained harmful chemicals.
It is understood that the ministry is also looking at either amending or coming up with new legal provisions that would strike fear among errant cosmetics sellers in this “backyard” beauty industry, which is worth an estimated RM2 billion a year.
These proposed legal provisions could see them facing a mandatory jail term, besides being fined.
Under the current regulatory system, if their products are found to be contaminated or laced with harmful, even deadly substances, they will only have to recall them within 72 hours. There are no legal implications.