How We Evaluate
Safety Assessment 101
All P&G Beauty & Grooming products undergo a rigorous safety assessment prior to marketing. In fact, there are over 400 P&G scientists and regulatory experts across the globe whose mission is to ensure safe products and carry out the safety assessment. The safety assessment uses standardized approaches affirmed by scientific agencies, governments and regulatory bodies around the world.
What You Do: We all make decisions every day based on our own judgment of risk.
When we approach a new situation we ask ourselves questions and follow steps that are fundamental aspects of product safety assessment:
Putting It All Together - The Safety of Broccoli, Water and Fragrances
"What could the outcome be?"
What You Do: When you make choices to use a new consumer product, drive to work, or eat certain foods, you consider doing those activities because they provide a benefit. For example, cosmetic products provide benefits that help us look our best, which can lead to a greater sense of self-confidence and well-being. Likewise, other activities also provide relative benefits but before we move forward with those choices, we ask ourselves, "What could go wrong if I choose to do this?"
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Did You Know... Any activity, ingredient, or product can cause harm in a worst-case scenario? Identifying those potentially harmful scenarios is the first step in safety assessment. For example, water can be fatal if you drink too much of it. Electricity at low levels powers our heart and brain as well as 9-volt batteries, but an electrical current millions of times more powerful from a bolt of lightning can cause death. Even products as simple and seemingly harmless as buckets have resulted in fatalities when used improperly. |
What We Do: While many scientists at P&G work tirelessly to produce new and amazing benefits in our cosmetic products, the unique role of our safety organization is to ensure our products are safe for their intended use. We typically begin by asking the question "What could go wrong if the product is misused, and how do we ensure the product is safe for its directed use?" For example, when evaluating fragrances, we always begin a safety assessment for skin allergy by identifying any potential allergenic components in the perfume. Many ingredients needed for the pleasant aroma of perfumes are also found in common flowers and plants, and a few of them can potentially cause skin allergy at high levels. However, we make sure the low levels we use are safe (see below). Hazard Identification »
"What's the right amount?"
What You Do: Before you take a medication, use a product, or even eat food, you read labels or instructions to choose an amount you can be certain will give you the benefit without any harm. For example, drinking one to two liters of water over the course of a day is essential for your health, while drinking a lot more could lead to "water intoxication," an imbalance of electrolytes that can be fatal. The onset of water intoxication happens at levels much higher than the one to two liters we typically drink in a day (often on the order of 10 liters), so you know the usual amount you drink every day is safe and will not harm you.
What We Do: To make sure you get the maximum benefit from our cosmetic products, we provide usage instructions on our labels so you do not use too little or too much, but the right amount to look your best. However, our work does not stop there. We evaluate the safety of our products by confirming how much consumers typically use, so we can confirm the product is safe for you and the environment. Exposure Assessment »
"Is this safe for me?"
What You Do: The final phase of safety assessment in daily life is when you have weighed the potential benefits and risks of a new activity or product and decided whether or not to proceed. When you make a decision to try something new, it is a much easier choice when you know others have made the same decision and enjoyed the experience with no problems or safety issues.
What We Do: For P&G, the process of safety assessment is considered key throughout the development of a new product. We use the same standardized approaches for safety that are utilized by international scientific agencies, governments, and regulatory bodies around the world. We do not market a product unless it has been cleared by our safety scientists. Risk Characterization »
Consumer Safety in the Product Development Process
Designing in Fragrance Safety. After we have identified any potential skin allergens in our cosmetic fragrances (the hazard step), we conduct a safety assessment to compare the amount of the product a consumer would typically use on their skin (the exposure step) to the level of the ingredient known to cause allergic skin reactions. Our safety assessments ensure that all ingredients in our products are included at safe amounts, often 100 to 1,000 times below levels that are known to induce skin allergy. This assessment process is also used by the leading fragrance safety agency in the world to ensure safety of perfumes for virtually every type of consumer product. Learn more about fragrance safety from the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM).
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Confirming Safety. The thoroughness of our safety standards and processes is also confirmed by the billions of uses of our products every day that delight our consumers. However, we do not stop there. We actively monitor the safety of our products in the marketplace through surveillance of calls to our consumer lines. This continuous feedback enables P&G to maintain a high standard of product quality and consumer satisfaction.
The Complete Picture: The Safety of Water and Broccoli
The most important fact to remember is that every substance or ingredient in the world has a safe level and a hazardous level, and that it is the dose or exposure conditions that make your specific scenario safe or unsafe. Knowing both the potential hazard in question and your exposure or dose will give you a complete picture of safety - either one by itself is incomplete and will lead to misunderstandings and misplaced concern.
Broccoli causing cancer?
We all know broccoli has been shown to be a very nutritious vegetable and has been linked to numerous health benefits. But few people know that broccoli also contains natural substances at very low levels that were shown to be carcinogenic (cancer-causing agents) when those chemicals were tested alone at extremely high doses in animal studies. However, diets high in broccoli and other green, leafy vegetables appear to be linked to a lower risk for certain types of cancers, likely because they are also rich in antioxidants. While broccoli contains a few chemicals at very low levels that might be carcinogenic in certain contexts (as do many fruits and vegetables), you would need to eat 10 to 20 pounds of broccoli or more every day for a lifetime before there would be any possible increase in relative cancer risk. The amount of broccoli makes all the difference! Typical diets rich in broccoli have never been shown to cause cancer, so keep eating all your fruits and vegetables!
Banning Water?
Product and ingredient information is frequently communicated in a worst-case scenario without the exposure level in context for consumers to make their own decisions. In 1998, Nathan Zohner, a freshman at Eagle Rock Junior High School in Idaho Falls, ID, decided to show how people had become conditioned to react to alarmist reports. For his science project at the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce, he urged people to sign a petition to control or ban the chemical "dihydrogen monoxide." He told those he petitioned a number of facts which included:
- Causes excessive sweating and vomiting.
- Is a major component in acid rain.
- Can cause severe burns in its gaseous state.
- Accidental inhalation can kill you.
- Contributes to erosion.
- Decreases effectiveness of car brakes.
- Has been found in pre-cancerous tumors of cancer patients.
He asked 50 people if they supported a ban of this chemical. Forty-three said yes, six were undecided, and only one knew that dihydrogen monoxide was actually water.
Safety in Context: When one considers the safety of a certain activity or chemical, it is critical that both the exposure and use context are included in the evaluation. Receiving information about a hazard alone without the appropriate context makes it difficult to evaluate whether there is a true safety concern. Making Sense of Safety Information »
Next section: Human Health Risk Assessment »
Resources
National Research Council, Committee on Comparative Toxicology of Naturally Occurring Carcinogens, Carcinogens and Anticarcinogens in the Human Diet: A Comparison of Naturally Occurring and Synthetic Substances (Washington, D.C.:National Academy Press, 1996).
The Source Book for Teaching Science