Carbomers and potential impurity benzene

Recently, there have been a lot of discussions about the "benzene impurity" of carbomer, and many cosmetic practitioners are worried that carbomer cannot be used? Is carbomer a risk?

On August 22, 2023, the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) on the determination of pH value of water-oil cosmetics and other 21 modification items into the cosmetic safety Technical specification (2015 version) notice (No. 41 of 2023), the new management limit of cosmetics prohibited components benzene (2mg/kg), If it is technically impossible to avoid benzene as an impurity into cosmetics, its limit value shall not exceed 2mg/kg" into the "Cosmetic Safety Technical Specification (2015 edition)" Chapter II of the prohibited components of cosmetics 1 note (3), implemented from the date of release. 

Why do Carbomer products contain "benzene"? In the 1950s, in the earliest period of the development and synthesis of carbomer, benzene solvents were used , so some traditional type carbomer such as carbomer 940, 941, 676 contain residual benzene solvents. With the development,We have only launched carbomer products that use cosolvent instead of benzene solvent, such as “benzene free carbomer” , NM-Carbomer 970,20,21,990,981,1382, which do not use benzene as solvent system. At the same time, we have already achieved the guarantee that the content of risk impurity benzene in Carbomer not only meets the industry standard, but also meets the requirements of major pharmacopoeia not more than 2mg/kg. Such as our pharmaceutical grade and oral care grade carbomer 934P, 974P and 971P, 71G and 10G, etc.

In addition, everyone's concern about the "benzene content" is ultimately due to safety and health considerations. Of course, the safety of raw materials is a prerequisite for the safety of cosmetic products.

We, Anhui Newman fine chemicals Co., ltd, is the top leading manufacturer of carbomer and acrylates copolymer. For Strict control of potential risk impurity such as heavy metals, benzene etc. we have tested and checked every production unit,  from raw materials used in production, production process, packaging and so on.   To ensure that the impurity benzene content of our Newman Carbomer meets the industry standards, and the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (ChP.), the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP/NF), the European Pharmacopoeia (Ph.Eur.), the British Pharmacopoeia (BP), the Indian Pharmacopoeia(IP), the Japanese Pharmacopoeia (JPE) and relevant regulations.

In addition, we also introduce a series of easy-to-use liquid acylates copolymer without the use of organic solvents in the synthesis process, such as NM-Carbomer Aqua10 with INCI name Acrylates/Beheneth-25 methacrylate copolymer, and NM-Carbomer Aqua 20 with INCI NAME Acrylates/ Steareth-20 Methacrylate Copolymer，  NM-Carbomer Aqua 25 with INCI NAME Acrylates/ Steareth-20 Methacrylate Crosspolymer They are anionic hydrophobically modified alkali soluble, acrylic polymer emulsion (HASE) with unusually high aqueous thickening and stabilizing.   They are e liquid, cold-processable product that instantaneously thickens, upon neutralization providing ease of handling and increased manufacturing efficiency.

Anhui Newman have been approved by ISO9001 quality system, ISO 14001 environmental system and ISO 45001 occupational health and safety system certification in 2015.   In January 2023, we successfully passed the assessment conducted by Eco Vadis, a global social responsibility assessment company, actively fulfilled the SA8000 social responsibility standard, reduced pollution emissions, rationally used resources, and ensured that the environment continued to meet the standards.   And we constantly improved the construction of the company's social responsibility management system, and effectively fulfilled social responsibilities.