Scope
IS 3959:2004 applies to skin powders, including body powders, talcum powders, toilet powders, deodorant powders, and dusting powders. It also includes optional ECO Mark requirements for skin powder products seeking that marking.
Exact limit and units
| metal | matrix | limit | unit | basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy metals as Pb | Body powder; powder | 20 | parts per million | Finished skin powder |
| Arsenic as As2O3 | Body powder; powder | 2 | parts per million | Finished skin powder; exact value documented but not converted to elemental tAs in regulatory_limits.csv |
| Heavy metals as Pb | ECO Mark skin powder | 10 | ppm | Finished ECO Mark skin powder |
| Arsenic as As2O3 | ECO Mark skin powder | 1 | ppm | Finished ECO Mark skin powder; exact value documented but not converted to elemental tAs in regulatory_limits.csv |
How tested
The table refers heavy-metals testing to Annex F and arsenic testing to Annex G. The standard says manufacturers may omit finished-product heavy-metal and arsenic testing where all raw materials requiring those tests have been tested and comply.
Enforcement posture
The text is an Indian Standard issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Use of the Standard Mark is governed by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986 and related rules; the standard also points manufacturers to compliance with the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and rules thereunder.
History of changes
The PDF identifies IS 3959:2004 as the second revision of the skin powder specification and says it was adopted by the Bureau of Indian Standards after approval by the responsible division council. The publication page carries the 2004 standard date.
How it compares
The ordinary skin-powder lead limit is 20 ppm, while the ECO Mark-specific lead limit is 10 ppm. The arsenic limits are stricter for ECO Mark products but are expressed as As2O3 rather than elemental arsenic.
Sources
Update history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| a8052bb | 2026-08-09 | major | 1 source added; contamination-profile values revised; 7 sections added |