FRANCESCA FASANO
Head of BU Chemical, ChemSafe

Abstract

In 2020 due to the spread of COVID-19, the market experienced a sudden request of products for hand washing, which caused shortage of products. Several companies looked with interest at this market portion. The main problem was to understand which regulation to follow, the cosmetic regulation or the biocidal product regulation. Both regulations may apply, it is matter of economic and marketing strategy to choose between them. This paper gives a quick overview of the differences in terms of requirements, costs, time and claims between the regulation, to help companies to make their choice.

COVID-19 WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MARKET?

In March 2020 following the spread of the COVID-19 disease our everyday life changed dramatically. One of the first actions carried out at EU level to prevent and reduce virus transmission was enhancement of hygiene practice. 

The agency of European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in the prevention and control website page recommends frequent washing of hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, or cleaning hands thoroughly with alcohol-based solutions, gels or tissues in all settings (1).

The World Health Organization document of 2010 reporting the “WHO-recommended Handrub Formulations” became very popular. In this document all the instruction to prepare two different hand rub formulations are reported, the formulation 1 is based on Ethanol and the formulation 2 is based on Isopropyl alcohol (2).

As a result, the market experienced a sudden request of products for hand washing, which caused shortage of products, raw material availability problems and cost increasing. 

Several ...