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Label plan 'would send cosmetics firms broke'

Green scheme will increase operating costs by up to 30pc, says industry

Half of small and medium-sized cosmetics businesses might be forced to close under a proposal to label products containing chemicals that help form smog, the industry has warned.

The alert came as a visiting American specialist cautioned that the labelling system would not be effective.

About 100 industry representatives yesterday exchanged views with environment officials in a forum on the proposal, which covers about 40 categories of consumer products from fragrances and cosmetics to toiletries, and is expected to come into force in 2006.

The proposal requires mandatory labelling of the content in weight of volatile organic compounds present in the products, regular reporting of sales figures and a warning on the products themselves.

It was only an interim measure before further regulation to limit levels of the compound in products.

Industry representatives said the government had wrongly targeted cosmetics products.

Volatile organic compounds are a precursor of smog formation, as they react with nitrogen dioxide to produce ozone under strong sunlight.

Paul Leung Chung-leung, the spokesman for the 100-member strong Cosmetic and Perfumery Association of Hong Kong, warned the labelling requirement might drive up operating costs by 20 to 30 per cent.

About half of the smaller cosmetics businesses might be forced to shut down because of the initiative and shoppers would have much less product variety, he said.

Bob Hamilton, a visiting American expert on regulating volatile organic compounds in consumer products in California, said the labelling scheme would not work.

'Labelling is unlikely to affect consumer choice and consumers would not look at the specific labels unless they have personal interests in it,' he said.

California started regulating products in early 1990 to deal with its smog problem but rejected labelling. The US state does not require product registration but randomly picks up products for testing content compliance.

Mr Hamilton said it was wiser for Hong Kong to regulate the exact content of the compounds in targeted products and skip the labelling requirement.

Tse Chin-wan, principal assistant Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, yesterday reiterated that industry comments on how to implement the labelling would be seriously considered.

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