Fragrance industry maintains list of restricted, banned substances

Nearly everyone recalls a special moment of captivation with the alluring scents of perfume. The world’s fascination with their exotic brands and qualities forms the heart of a nearly $10 billion fragrance industry.

Few industries guard their images more carefully. While traditional perfumery relied on blends of plant and animal sources, today’s industry also abounds with sophisticated chemistry and synthetics. Chemistry’s rising prominence has prompted an increasing, critical emphasis on safer ingredients and self-regulation, its leaders say.

“The fragrance industry lets science govern the use of materials in perfumery,” said Jennifer Abril, executive director of the International Fragrance Association North America. “Our perfumers are regularly challenged to reformulate, or look for alternatives to materials that had been on their palettes for centuries.”

Nearly a decade ago, the fragrance industry increasingly asserted controls it instituted in 1973 to restrict or ban ingredients of concern for health and environmental reasons. The industry’s “Code of Practice,” administered by the Swiss-based International Fragrance Association (IFRA), now governs ingredients used by companies responsible for 90 percent of world fragrance production. The Code, updated yearly to reflect evolving science, consumer concerns and government regulations, is binding on fragrance companies whose products are also subject to annual IFRA spot checks in stores.

Currently, the industry-wide Code identifies, restricts and prohibits nearly 200 natural or synthetic ingredients of concern. This list of IFRA-restricted materials provides a major stimulus to fragrance companies to analyze and select alternatives.

In California, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) aims to stimulate similar exploration of alternatives to toxic materials in consumer products. Its draft Safer Consumer Products Regulations proposes a list of chemicals of concern, with new rules to steer manufacturers using those chemicals toward safer ingredients.

“We want manufacturers to ask: ‘Is it necessary to use a toxic chemical in their consumer product, or is there a safer alternative?’” said DTSC Director Debbie Raphael.

Fragrance industry leaders say they restrict materials based on analysis by the industry’s scientific arm, the New Jersey-based Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM). The institute’s findings undergo additional review by an independent expert panel of toxicologists, pharmacologists, dermatologists and environmental scientists. None are affiliated with the fragrance industry.

“If we can’t demonstrate a safe use level, it’s not in our best interest to allow that material to continue to be used in a product, because there are going to be problems. Image problems, as well as adverse consumer reactions,” explained former IFRA North America president William Troy in a recent Wired Magazine story about modern perfumery. 

“We can’t do otherwise,” he said.

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