IFRA-49 regulations

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@Nona'sFarm yes, that’s the book.

While the IFRA guidelines may be overly stringent in some/many cases, they also help to raise awareness that there are chemicals in fragrance and essential oils that can increase the risk of skin sensitization, cancer or toxic effects under some condition(s). Common sense is not going to help us predict effects, like cancer, that take decades to develop.

So, what’s a soap maker to do? The easiest answer is to stay within manufacturer/supplier guidelines, which in some cases may result in a very wide margin of safety. Alternatively, we can try to learn more as a basis for informed decision-making.

Tisserand and Young’s book is a valuable resource to have on hand, particularly when using EOs. Just this morning I learned that beta-myrcene is common in nature, for example in lemongrass, rosemary, and pepper. After presenting a review of scientific research (lab studies), they conclude the following: “the results of the [high dose, ingestion route] study have little relevance to human exposure“ and beta-myrcene can be “regarded as non-irritant, non-allergenic, non-toxic and antimutagenic.” Good, I’m crossing it off my list of things to worry about.

I don’t own a similar reference book for the alphabet soup of chemicals, including those that are synthetic, in fragrance oils. Is there such a book? Without any additional information to inform my decision making, I‘m most comfortable with sticking with the usage guidelines provided by the suppliers.
 
Considering where the funding from IFRA comes from, I think it’s all about business for them. This chemical is not profitable to produce anymore, let’s limit its usage and use something else…. Guess what, as rich as the funding companies are, they can afford to fund a research that support whatever agenda they are pushing.

Call me a cynic but I don’t trust that there is no profit behind everything IFRA does.
My first thought with these new regulations was that this was just another attempt to cripple the handmade soap industry.
While I understand and applaud continuing research to help keep us healthy, I find myself skeptical that the small amounts of FO that we use (particularly in a wash-off product like soap) would now be considered harmful. As @cmzaha said, we are limited in our media as to how much fragrance we can actually use and still have a viable product.
After reading over these new regulations, it seems that the IFRA is basing these new usage rates on a combination of studies of dermal sensitivity and systemic toxicity with a new scale 'created by them' - did I read that correctly?
How many times a day would you have to bathe to build up these effects? How much lotion would you have to apply? Are we even talking about reasonable human usage here?
Even water can be toxic if ingested at unreasonable amounts.
 
I was looking at a cardamom fragrance at candle science and noticed this statement: which is similar to the IFRA linked information but seems more clear.
 

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