I. Introduction

Parents want to provide the very best for their babies. Many would spend a lot of money to make sure that they have the safest products for their love ones. However, paying more for a product does not necessarily mean that they are safer. World Green Organisation (WGO), as a neutral party not affiliated with any brands within the baby product market, share the same concerns with parents and want to ensure that products that are used daily are safe for consumers. As such, WGO is setting a higher safety standard and creating a ‘White List’ of baby personal care products that have passed biological testing, chemical analysis, and international ingredient standards (this white list is dynamic and will grow and change as we test more baby personal care products). Consumers can use this list to facilitate purchase decision.

In order to ensure that the baby products are safe, WGO, in collaboration with three renowned laboratories, developed a 3-defense methodology, 1) biological testing and 2) chemical analysis, as well as 3) international ingredients standard checking, to test baby products found in Hong Kong. WGO decided to supplement chemical analysis with biological testing because the current government regulations only require chemical testing which checks if products contain any or too much chemicals that disturb key functions inside the human body. This does not take into account other factors such as chemical reactions that occur when ingredients are mixed together. In addition, due to the lengthy and expensive process, only a small percentage of chemicals’ toxicity is fully known. According to the USEPA, there are still many unknown chemicals that are still being evaluated for potential human health effects i . Out of the 87,000 chemicals detected in 2006, “there is limited basic toxicity information for” of them. This is because there is no single entity and institution that measures the number of chemicals used commercially, let alone one that tests the toxicity of them. ii

In order to fully determine how chemicals in baby products affect the human body, effect-based biological methods must also be used. Through effect-based biological testing, we can cover a wider range of chemicals and determine whether the chemicals and the product are safe for human consumption. Products that are found to comply with biological criteria, chemical analysis, and international ingredient standards will be published in the ‘White List’ and deemed as safe products. To identify knowledge and awareness gaps within the general public, WGO also conducted face-to-face surveys in October and November 2016 with 200 Hong Kong parents with children under the age of 3. (For more details on the methodology of this study, please refer to the methodology section of this report.)

The objectives of this 3-year project are to:

• Raise public recognition to the potential health and safety threats through scientific product testing.
• Equip consumers with the information and knowledge needed to recognise safe products for their body and the environment.
• Encourage manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers to become more responsible and only produce products that meet biological, chemical, and international ingredient health standards by promoting public awareness and utilising consumer power.

III. Methodology

For this research project, we employed three methodologies: a) policy review; b) market review; and c) testing result analysis, including bio-testing, chemical testing, and international ingredient checking.

b) Market Review

WGO conducted face-to-face questionnaires in October and November 2016 with 200 Hong Kong parents who have children under the age of three. The market review was to determine the Hong Kong market for baby personal care products so that a sampling method can be decided.

Demographics: Below are graphs showing the demographic of the 200 Hong Kong parents.

Findings:

Hong Kong Market

Graph 1: Where Hong Kong parents buy their baby personal care products

From the graph above, 85% of respondents buy their baby personal care products at major retailers.

Graph 2: What Hong Kong parents look for when buying baby personal care products

From graph 2, other than the price, all the other categories are related to the safety of the product. This demonstrates that Hong Kong parents are interested in and concerned about the safety of the baby personal care product market.

Safety awareness and knowledge of the Hong Kong parents

Graph 3: Percentage of respondents who read the ingredients label of their baby personal care products.

Only 25% of respondents always read the ingredients label to see what ingredients are in the products or to see if it is safe. This gives us a hint of the safety awareness gaps within the Hong Kong community.

Graph 4: Reasons why respondents did not read the ingredient label

Over 58% of respondents do not read the ingredient labels because they do not understand the words. This means that we need to raise safety knowledge of parents. Nearly 40% of the other respondents answered that they trusted the product safety. This tells us that we need to also raise public recognition to the potential health and safety threats.

Graph 5: Percentage of Hong Kong parents who think that Hong Kong regulations are enough.

Only 1/3 of the respondents were confident about Hong Kong regulations. Over 41% of participants were wary about Hong Kong regulations regarding product safety. This means that although some parents are concerned about the baby personal care product market, there is still a lot of work to be done in raising awareness of the gaps within product safety standards in Hong Kong.

These findings show a distinct lack of understanding and knowledge regarding baby personal care product safety. This confirms that we need to increase consumer awareness of baby personal care product safety in terms of the ingredients in the products, its health consequences, and government regulations.

IV. Criteria

In order for products to be on the ‘White List’, they must pass all of the following criteria:

• Biological: Products must pass Estrogenic Endocrine Disrupting Chemical (EDC) tests which analyse the way chemicals interact and affect the human body. (As mentioned before, endocrine disruptors are chemicals that negatively affect hormones in the human body and cause fatal health problems). In order to pass, products cannot exceed the amount of Estrogen Equivalent Concentration (EEQ) that is allowed.  According to “Evaluations of the joint FAO/WHO expert committee on food additives (JECFA)” (2000, latest evaluation in 1999) on Estradiol-17beta, published by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO), the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of Estradiol-17beta is 0-50 ng/kg bw xv.

• Chemical: Products must pass all chemical tests required for product safety. Heavy metals, methanol, and free formaldehyde levels must not pass regulations from the Safety and Technical Standards for Cosmetics, 2015 edition, China Food and Drug Administration (i) Heavy Metal Contamination - Part 1 General, Table 2 (3.4) Restricted Limit of Harmful Elements in Cosmetic Products. Baby skincare products cannot exceed the following:
• Heavy metal
• Arsenic (As) ≤2mg/kg(ppm)
• Lead (Pb) ≤10mg/kg(ppm)
• Mercury (Hg) ≤1mg/kg(ppm)
• Cadmium (Cd) ≤5mg/kg(ppm)
• Methanol ≤2000mg/kg(ppm)
• Free formaldehyde ≤2000mg/kg(ppm)

• Ingredient Checking: Products must not contain any chemicals that are associated with health complications, eco-toxicity, or contamination by scientific safety evaluations, or are banned by the following governmental agencies and authoritative bodies.
• US: USFDA’s ‘Summary of colour additives for use in the United States in foods, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices’ and ‘Prohibited & Restricted Ingredients’
• EU: European Commission No. 1223/2009
• China: China FDA’s ‘Safety and Technical Standard for Cosmetics’ (2015)
• Japan: Japan’s ‘Standards for Cosmetics’ (2000)