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Cosmetic Sunscreen Standard – Regulation Impact Statement – Department of Health and Ageing

On 17 June 2013, the Department of Health and Ageing made regulations to adopt the Sunscreen Standard 2604:2012 for cosmetic sunscreen products. The change will be introduced with a five-year transition period, during which cosmetic sunscreen products can conform to either the previous 1998 Sunscreen Standard or the revised 2012 Sunscreen Standard, and after which products must conform to 2012 Sunscreen Standard. The new Sunscreen Standard allows cosmetic sunscreen products to be labelled with a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) rating of up to SPF 50+ compared with the previous limit of SPF 30+. The new Sunscreen Standard also sets more stringent requirements for broad spectrum performance and makes these mandatory for skin care products. The proposal will increase business efficiencies and consumer confidence as the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS) and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) will administer the same, 2012 version of the Sunscreen Standard. TGA regulates therapeutic sunscreen products and adopted the revised standard for therapeutic sunscreen products in November 2012. The main costs arise for companies that are required to reformulate their product lines ahead of normal product life-cycle, since the proposal will be implemented using a closed transition period. Costs are mainly minor and one-off, although significant reformulation costs may be incurred to maintain the cosmetic attractiveness of products. A Regulation Impact Statement was prepared by the Department of Health and Ageing and assessed as adequate by the Office of Best Practice Regulation.