Overview
On December 23, 2022, the Governor signed into law a bill that prohibits the sale of any cosmetic or personal care product containing mercury. The law amended section 37-0117 of the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) and took effect on June 1, 2023. Under ECL 37-0117(8), “No person shall sell or offer for sale any cosmetic product or personal care product containing mercury, other than in trace amounts identified by the department, in consultation with the department of health, in regulations.
Any such trace amounts shall be consistent with the permissible concentrations of trace amounts allowed by the food and drug administration (FDA) as:
(a) unavoidable under conditions of good manufacturing practice, or
(b) necessary for use as a preservative in the absence of an effective and safe nonmercurial preservative substitute in cosmetic products intended for use only in the area of the eye.”