Regulation of cosmetics in the U.S.

In the United States, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) defines cosmetics as “articles intended to be rubbed, poured, sprinkled, or sprayed on, introduced into, or otherwise applied to the human body…for cleansing, beautifying promoting attractiveness, or altering appearance”. Products such as nail polish, hair coloring, straightening formulas, and shampoos fall under this definition of cosmetics. In the U.S., the FDA does not mandate premarket approval for cosmetic ingredients or products, with the exception of color. Additionally, the FDA is not legally responsible for cosmetic product or ingredient safety and does not have the authority to require manufactures to submit their safety data to the FDA. Instead, the cosmetic manufacturer is legally responsible for correctly labeling and producing their products with safe ingredients. U.S. cosmetic companies are also not required to register their product or ingredients with the FDA as registration is purely voluntary. The FDA cannot legally order a recall of cosmetic products in the U.S. even if they have been shown to have poor health outcomes. A product recall relies on the cosmetic manufacturer is completely voluntary.

In contrast, the European Union requires cosmetic products to undergo premarket safety testing and requires mandatory cosmetology product and ingredient registration. In general, the European Union approaches cosmetics and their production under the precautionary principle. The EU has banned 1,328 chemicals from use in cosmetics and does not permit animal testing for cosmetics.

OSHA requirements regarding formaldehydeedit

OSHA requires manufacturers, importers, and distributors to identify formaldehyde on any product that contains more than 0.1% formaldehyde (as a gas or in a solution), or if the product can release formaldehyde at concentrations greater than 0.1 parts per million (ppm). Safety data sheets (SDS) must also accompany the product and kept on premises with the product at all times. The SDS must explain why a chemical in the product is hazardous, how it is harmful, how workers can protect themselves, and what they should do in an emergency.

Salon owners and stylists are advised to look closely at the hair smoothing products they use (read product labels and SDS sheets) to see if they contain methylene glycol, formalin, methylene oxide, paraform, formic aldehyde, methanal, oxomethane, oxymethylene, or CAS Number 50-00-0. According to OSHA's Formaldehyde standard, a product containing any of these names should be treated as a product containing formaldehyde. OSHA's Hazard Communication standard (Right to Know) states that salon owners and other employers' must have a SDS for products containing hazardous chemicals. If salon owners or other employers decide to use products that contain or release formaldehyde they are required to follow the guidelines in OSHA's Formaldehyde standard.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), is responsible for inspections of worker health and safety. It is estimated 375,000 nail technicians work in nail salons in the United States. Yet in 2005, OSHA inspected only 18 nail salons because businesses are exempt from inspection if they have 10 employees or less. According to the Asian American Resource Workshop, Vietnamese nail salon workers hold 40% of nail technician licenses in the United States. "It's long hours, low hourly pay, and fierce competition from every corner of the block" and with such fierce competition between businesses, salaries are reduced even further. As a result, a majority of these immigrants are subject to low socioeconomic status; which subsequently reduces opportunity to be educated about the occupational chemicals they are exposed to in the workplace and reduces opportunity to seek health care if adverse health effects are experienced from chemical exposure.citation needed