Washington State Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act (HB 1047, 2023)

The Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act (TFCA) is a Washington State statute enacted in 2023 (Chapter 365, Laws of 2023, codified in RCW 70A.560), with effective date 1 January 2025. It establishes binding state-level caps on heavy metals and other priority chemicals in cosmetic products sold in Washington State.

Key numbers

• Lead (Pb) in toothpaste: 1000 µg/kg (1000 ppb, 1 mg/kg, 1 ppm) statutory cap on finished product as sold.
• Lead in other cosmetic products: the TFCA establishes lead caps with applicability to lipsticks, eye products, makeup, hair-care, and other personal-care items at the same 1 ppm finished-product level.
• Other heavy metals (Cd, Hg, As): addressed under separate TFCA provisions and default cosmetic-regulation defaults; the toothpaste-specific 1000 ppb is Pb-specific.

Methods

The statute does not specify a dedicated analytical method. The Washington State Department of Ecology and rulemaking under TFCA defer to standard cosmetic-industry analytical practice for total heavy metals in finished products: nitric acid + hydrogen peroxide microwave digestion followed by ICP-MS quantification. LOD/LOQ at least an order of magnitude below the cap (~10-100 ppb) is expected for defensible exceedance determinations.

Implications

Certification: The TFCA is the operative US binding cap for Pb in toothpaste; HMT&C Cat 2 toothpaste row threshold-setting references this regulation as the literature/regulatory floor for the US market. EU’s EC Regulation No 1223/2009 cosmetic Pb cap of 0.5 ppm (500 ppb) is stricter; Canadian and WHO cosmetic Pb guidance at 10 ppm (10,000 ppb) is more permissive.

Courses: A useful worked example of state-level cosmetic regulation filling the federal gap (FDA does not set a binding finished-product Pb cap for toothpaste).

App: Country-of-origin or state-of-sale “US-WA” triggers the 1000 ppb Pb finished-product cap for toothpaste and other cosmetic categories covered by the TFCA.

Wiki pages updated on ingest

• Washington State Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act — Toothpaste Pb 1000 ppb statutory limit
• Toothpaste (Cat 2)
• Lead

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