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Sunscreen Safety: The Precautionary Principle, The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration and Nanoparticles in Sunscreens

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Abstract

The ‘Precautionary Principle’ provides a somewhat ill-defined guide, often of uncertain normative status, for those exercising administrative decision-making power in circumstances where that may create potential risks to human health or the environment. This paper seeks to explore to what extent the precautionary principle should have been and was in fact utilised by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in its decision to approve the marketing of sunscreens containing titanium dioxide (TiO2) and zinc oxide (ZnO) in nanoparticulate form. In particular, this article assesses to what extent better application of that principle might have altered the TGA’s decision that TiO2 and ZnO ENPs in sunscreens do not require new safety testing, because they are considered to be functionally equivalent to their bulk counterparts.

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Notes

  1. See for instance, s391 Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999) (Cth); s30(1)(c) Fisheries Management Act (1994) (NSW).

  2. The distinction was articulated in Friends of Hinchinbrook Society Inc v Minister for Environment and Others (1997) 142 ALR 632, 677–678.

  3. [1993] NSWLEC 191.

  4. Janet Fletcher v The Corporation of the City of Kingston (2004) 240 DLR (4th) 734, 754 para 86.

  5. EC Measures concerning Meat and Meat Products (Hormones), WTO Doc WT/DS26/AB/R, WT/DS48/AB/R (16 January 1998), paras187, 194.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Australian National University Medical School, Canberra, Australia

    Thomas Faunce & Katherine Murray

  2. Australian National University College of Law, Canberra, Australia

    Thomas Faunce & Hitoshi Nasu

  3. Monash Centre for Regulatory Studies, Faculty of Law, Monash University, Clayton, Australia

    Diana Bowman

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  1. Thomas Faunce
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  2. Katherine Murray
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  3. Hitoshi Nasu
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  4. Diana Bowman
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Correspondence to Thomas Faunce.

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Faunce, T., Murray, K., Nasu, H. et al. Sunscreen Safety: The Precautionary Principle, The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration and Nanoparticles in Sunscreens. Nanoethics 2, 231–240 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11569-008-0041-z

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