This BVL announcement/report gives German orientation values for technically avoidable heavy-metal contents in cosmetic products. It explains that EU Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009 prohibits listed heavy metals as intentional ingredients while Article 17 allows unintended trace presence only when technically unavoidable under good manufacturing practice and safe for human health.
Table 1 sets technically avoidable values for lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, and antimony in cosmetic products in general and in toothpaste, with higher lead values for specified decorative and theater/fan/carnival make-up categories and a higher arsenic value for theater/fan/carnival make-up. These are recorded as guidance impurity limits rather than statutory maximum levels. Arsenic is recorded as total arsenic (tAs), and mercury is recorded as total mercury (tHg), because the table does not state narrower species.
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