(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) President and CEO Scott Melville released the following statement today regarding this afternoon’s hearing on microbeads legislation.
“We appreciate the hearing held today by Chairman Joe Pitts (R-PA) and Ranking Member Gene Green (D-TX) in the House Energy and Commerce (E&C) Committee’s Health Subcommittee Ranking on the issue of microbeads. The bill being discussed, HR 1321, the “Microbead Free Waters Act”, introduced by full E&C Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) along with full E&C Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), prohibits the sale or distribution of cosmetics containing synthetic plastic microbeads after January 1, 2018.
CHPA has long supported state efforts on this issue, which now includes five state laws that ban microbeads in personal care products and OTC drug products. CHPA, alongside the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC), supports a national standard, consistent with those state laws, that includes appropriate phase-out dates for microbeads in personal care products, appropriate definitions of key terms, and expansion of the bill to include OTC drugs containing microbeads.
America’s OTC medicine companies take seriously our role in good environmental stewardship. PCPC and CHPA members have voluntarily committed to discontinue formulating products with these ingredients, and we look forward to continuing the collaborative tone set by the bill’s sponsors today.”
