AUSTRALIA | CHOICE has responded to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)’s announcement on proposed reforms to sunscreen regulation.
The group has welcomed the TGA’s proposed sunscreen reforms, following last year's testing, which found 16 of 20 sunscreen products did not live up to their SPF claims, revealing an urgent need to change how sunscreen is regulated.
Andy Kelly, Director of Consumer Impact, was pleased to see the TGA has proposed stricter rules which would require sunscreen brands to test their finished product, rather than just the base formula, and provide the results to the TGA before the product is listed.
Brands would also be required to continue testing their products after listing. Currently, sunscreen brands are not required to provide any SPF testing data to the TGA unless requested, so Kelly believed this change would greatly improve transparency around how brands test their products.
“However, the TGA is not proposing to routinely monitor and evaluate test results. Sunscreen brands would also only be required to provide test results confidentially to the TGA,” said Kelly.
“In the interest of transparency and public safety, we believe these results should be made available to everyone and that the TGA should routinely monitor test results, as well as conduct its own compliance testing program.”
CHOICE also supported the TGA’s recommended changes to how labs conducting SPF testing are regulated, following concerns around the reliability of some laboratories. Under the proposed reforms, any labs conducting SPF testing for products available in Australia would require international accreditation.
Kelly added that in a country where around two in three people will be diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetime, consumers deserve to trust that the claims on sunscreen products are accurate and that these proposed reforms were an important step towards ensuring this is the case.
CHOICE looks forward to continuing to work with the TGA to improve sunscreen regulation in Australia.
