The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ordered 16 nail polish products off the shelves after they were found to contain excessive levels of formaldehyde, which can increase the risk of cancer with long-term exposure.
The 16 nail polishes were among 154 nailcare products, lipsticks and cosmetics containing essential oils that were randomly tested by the FDA in June last year.
“These products were tested for heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, mercury and cadmium, as well as toxic organic solvents including benzene, dichloromethane, methyl, methylbenzene and formaldehyde,” FDA Northern Center for Regional Administration official Wang Te-yuan (王德原) told a news conference in Taipei.
Wang said the 16 deficient nail polishes included US nail polish manufacturer OPI’s Dramatic Duo nail polish set, with its Big Apple Red (#NL N25) and Black Onyx (#NLT02) found to contain 5,701.9 and 5,679 parts per million (ppm) of formaldehyde respectively, more than 74 times the maximum permissible residue level of 75ppm.
They also included Violet Voltage (#445) from top-selling US nail color and care brand Sally Hansen, which contained 7,698.4ppm of formaldehyde, and an unidentified polish from international nail lacquer manufacturer China Glaze, which had 5,959.6ppm of formaldehyde.
The other 12 polishes were tainted with formaldehyde at levels ranging from 92.8ppm to 15,810ppm, with some also being found to contain abnormal levels of lead and dichloromethane, Wang said.
Wang said that people found selling cosmetic products containing prohibited substances could be jailed for up to one year and fined up to NT$150,000 in accordance with the Statute for Control of Cosmetic Hygiene (化粧品衛生管理條例).
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods