Thread: FDA to crack down on home- based soap makers.

Good point, Lynn. I feel mostly shielded from the shilling since SRP is the only shaving community to which I belong.

Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

Good point, Lynn. I feel mostly shielded from the shilling since SRP is the only shaving community to which I belong.

I agree,,, I hardly have time to keep up with the posts on this site,,, let alone follow every other shaving site.

Originally Posted by Lynn

Not a Feinstein fan by any means but what about the poor new guys with little to no wetshaving knowledge being directed to mediocre at best products by the hype, shilling and bullying going on out there?? Just sayin'.....

I get what you're saying Lynn, but didn't we all have to discover what was best for us by use and experience? This forum that you started has been a great place to learn about wet shaving and the mentors here are the best thing that a newcomer can have. Many of us started using straights a long time ago and learned the hard way about soaps and razors. There will always be hype and shilling when it comes to a product (never been bullied) , but it will not be eliminated by legislation or regulation.

My point was that small producers with a good product will be discouraged and even eliminated from bringing their goods to market by this kind of law-making. Competition will be stifled and the large corporations will keep the control. Not only that, but how many times have products been re-called after the FDA has given them the go-ahead and people were harmed by them. These laws are not about safety. They are about control of the market and who gets the biggest share of it.

I have never been harmed by the goat's milk soap that I buy locally and if I have a problem they listen to my feedback. This new law may cost them too much to comply and they will just stop making soap as a side industry to their farm. Their income will be less and put financial pressure on their situation. Who comes out ahead? Proctor and Gamble or another big cosmetic firm, but not anyone that I know.

Have small artisans soap makers pay yet another tax to the government so they can submit a list of ingredients and approximate amounts to them to determine if its safe.

Religion and Politics

Like anything else there is regulating and then there is regulating. Laws governing what goes into cosmetics and the like should be heavily biased toward consumer health and safety. It can take a long time of continuous use for the harm to show up. So just because you have had no immediate ill effects from short term continuous use does not in all cases indicate there are no ill effects associated with a product.

The wide use of SDS/MSDS/PSD in industry is there not necessarily to protect those who work with these materials but also to insulate employers from class action law suits. They have done their due diligence, trained people in the safe use/handling of these materials and made the info readily available. If you ignore the info and mishandle/misuse the material you may be SOL for compensation if harmed.

It is important to know exactly what is in a cosmetic you are using and how the individual ingredients may be harmful or not. You can't start to make an educated guess about a product without strict labelling practices being enforced as well as good testing before it is on the market.

Bob

Just to put this into perspective, the proposed regulation would make the products affected compliant with EU regulations. The same EU regulations with which all your beloved European products have to be compliant. Martin de Candre, Santa Maria Novella, Haslinger... But wait! Aren't those...? Yes, they are artisan products.

So don't get your undergarments in a twist, artisan soap making and compliance with sensible health and safety regulations are not mutually exclusive.

Originally Posted by Lynn

Not a Feinstein fan by any means but what about the poor new guys with little to no wetshaving knowledge being directed to mediocre at best products by the hype, shilling and bullying going on out there?? Just sayin'.....

Well, I've said it before, but for completeness's sake, I'll say it again. This year, I tried no less than 16 US and Canadian "artisan" soaps. And calling them mediocre would be putting it very diplomatically. But this isn't about quality.

You can still make a compliant soap that is bad. Off the top of my head, at least five truly horrible European soaps come to mind. But at least you can still buy them with confidence. They may make the lather from hell, but at least they won't poison you.

And that, gentlemen, is the whole point. You will, basically, get the same level of health safety that you already have with other cosmetics. I honestly don't see why this should be a bad thing.

There is already an Act this just Taxes business....

Proposed Personal Care Products Safety Act Would Significantly Expand FDA Authority over Cosmetics

FDA Law Blog: Proposed Personal Care Products Safety Act Would Significantly Expand FDA Authority over Cosmetics

Ah, yes. I know this sounded familiar. Here you are: http://straightrazorpalace.com/soaps...nd-corner.html. Good to see that this seems finally to be happening. You might as well see this as an opportunity, because the EU market is huge, and there are next to no US artisan soaps in it, yet.

The devil is in the details. When, and if, it emerges from committee, we shall see if it is truly about consumer safety. The goal of protecting users from unhealthy ingredients is certainly unobjectionable. The roster of large companies supporting it is suspicious. One fears that the new law will create regulatory burdens that help protect the market share of the big players. The concerns are not directed to the "what" of the bill, but to the "how."

Originally Posted by TomSlick

The devil is in the details. When, and if, it emerges from committee, we shall see if it is truly about consumer safety. The goal of protecting users from unhealthy ingredients is certainly unobjectionable. The roster of large companies supporting it is suspicious. One fears that the new law will create regulatory burdens that help protect the market share of the big players. The concerns are not directed to the "what" of the bill, but to the "how."

Well, look at it another way then. Most of the big boys are international in nature anyway and many already either manufacture products in the EU or export them to the EU. I would think that they are already in compliance with EU regulations in order to do that. For them it is probably no biggie if that is the case. Colgate-Palmolive comes to mind in making and selling shave cream/soap in the EU already. They don't seem to want to make/sell any in North America official for a long time now. Wish I could walk into my local retailer and buy Palmolive shave cream like I used to be able to do.

Bob