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Phenoxyethanol is a synthetic preservative known by the acronym of EGPhE, widely used in cosmetics and increasingly controversial. Since 2012, the ANSM (National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products) has recommended that this preservative not be used in cosmetic products intended for babies' seats and that its maximum content be set at 0.4% for other products for children under 3 years old. It also denounces its liver toxicity, its potentially harmful effects on reproduction as well as many other inconveniences: the conclusions of the 2012 ANSM report are alarming.
In its opinion of May 2018, the Temporary Scientific Special Committee (CSST) responsible for the re-evaluation of phenoxyethanol at the European level, for its part concluded: "The recommendation by the Ansm of non-use of phenoxyethanol in products It is advisable to extend it to wipes, which are very commonly used also for cleaning the seats of young children.In all other cosmetic products intended for children aged 3 and under, the maximum concentration of Phenoxyethanol could remain 1%. " The CSST would therefore follow the ANSM for wipes but not for concentration. In any case, by law, phenoxyethanol is still allowed in baby wipes!
Phenoxyethanol is produced by ethoxylation (a highly polluting chemical process) by reacting phenol and ethylene oxide at high temperature and pressure. Note, however, that phenoxyethanol is naturally present in green tea, but it is not this version of the compound that is used in cosmetics. Due to its manufacturing process, Phenoxyethanol is banned in Bio.