MOSH/MOAH in lip care products (quantification)

According to Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 related to cosmetic products "cosmetic products should be safe under normal or reasonable forseeable conditions of use". 

Mineral oils and waxes are ingredients in cosmetic products like lipsticks and lip balms. The composition of the mineral oil products, which are used as ingredients of lip care products is well-known in contrast to the contamination of food with MOSH and MOAH. 

However, there is an ongoing discussion about whether or not cosmetic products with mineral oil contents are safe for use. Not only the dermal absorption of MOSH and MOAH in lip care products is toxicologically relevant. The oral uptake might also be relevant not only, but especially for lip care products for young children with enjoyable flavors like e.g. strawberry or cherry.

Up to now, there is not standardised analytical method available for the quantification of MOSH and MOAH in lipcare products. 

This method ring test is focused on two different kinds of lip care products:

• a solid lip balm, and
• a viscous lip balm.

P2404-MRT is organised as a method ring test. That means, the evaluation is not limited to the pure statistical evaluation of the provided analytical data. Consequently, 

• all participants are asked to provide the chromatograms of the test sample and the blank sample including the integration of the humps. All chromatograms are published (anonymised with the lab code) in the final report.
• a questionnaire is provided related to the analytical details like internal standards, sample-pretreatment, etc. and related to the confirmation of the results.

The analytical details, which are mentioned above as well as the chromatogramms are summarised in separate parts of the final report. For reasons of fairness, only those participants, which provide details and chromatograms will receive these parts of the report. These data, anonymised and summarised, will help to identify shortcomings, built the basis for further discussion and thus help to enhance the quality of the applied methods.

The analytical results are evaluated with respect to

• the comparability criterion (z-score), and
• as far as achievable with respect to the trueness criterion (recovery of the spiked level, e.g. for MOAH).