The Good Housekeeping Institute has endorsed the Personal Care Products Safety Act, legislation introduced by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) to update the 80-year-old federal safety rules for personal care products.

“I’m grateful that Good Housekeeping has endorsed our bill to update federal safety rules for personal care products for the first time since 1938,” Feinstein said. “The scientists who test personal care products at the Good Housekeeping Institute know that a uniform safety standard, including the independent evaluation of ingredients, is long-overdue and sorely needed to protect consumers.”

The Good Housekeeping Institute, founded in 1900, is a state-of-the art testing facility staffed by engineers, researchers and scientists who vet thousands of products and recipes each year. Products or services appearing in Good Housekeeping magazine, reaching more than 30 million readers each month, have been evaluated by the Good Housekeeping Institute to ensure quality, safety and performance.

“Good Housekeeping has played a major role in working with the FDA and Congress, among other government agencies, to help ensure that consumer products uphold measures of safety across all industries,” said Jane Francisco, editor-in-chief of Good Housekeeping. “In light of recent advancements in product formulations and ingredients, it is time the government updates how it evaluates what is being sold.”

The legislation would require the FDA to evaluate at least five ingredients per year to determine whether they are safe, and if so, the appropriate concentration for their use. It would also give the FDA authority to order recalls of personal care products that threaten consumer safety, and to require labeling of products that include ingredients not appropriate for children and those that should be professionally administered. Complete label information, including ingredients and product warnings, would also be required to be posted online.

Additionally, the legislation would require companies to provide contact information on their products for consumers and report serious adverse events to the FDA within 15 days. Health effects that could have resulted in hospitalization without early intervention would also be required to be reported.