Dubai Forum of Challenges in Safety of Consumer Products kicks off

Dubai, May 28th, 2012 (WAM)--The Forum of Challenges in Safety of Consumer Products kicked off on Monday in Al Ras Hall at Intercontinental Hotel, Dubai.

The forum will serve as a better platform to understand the challenges, recommendations of the participants for the best methods in order to face the challenges through cooperation.

Eng. Hussain Nassir Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality inaugurated the two-day forum, which is aimed at giving a common platform to discuss the challenges in safety of consumer products such as cosmetics and personal care products in the region and world.

Talking about the objectives of the forum, Eng. Redha Salman, Director of Public Health and Safety Department said this forum is the first of its kind. It is being organised to seek the means of solving the challenges faced by the authorities in the field of safety in consumer products due to the tangible variations and differences in the international legislations, specifications and practices in different countries.

We here gathered to discuss one of the most important subjects, which is drastically neglected by the public and traders of consumers products, which in turn may lead to disaster in the life of many consumers of personal care products who are not enough aware of the safety requirements of the products, Redha said.

"The main challenges are related to the violations with regard to the storage, distribution, misuse and proceedings of the cosmetics and personal care products," said Salman.

"Civic body has so far assessed 48,291 products since the assessment system started and inspected above 5000 products in 2011. It also checked the compliance of 1814 establishments in Dubai in 2011," he explained.

Naseem Mohammed Rafee, Head of the Consumer Products Safety Section said, it is very important to gain the customer satisfaction and protect the consumers rights.

Simon Young, Global Regulatory Affairs Director, Personal Care and Home Care at Unilever, delivered a presentation highlighting the regulations of EU in place.

Brian Lightfoot, Cosmetic Industry Speciality at LOreal, spoke about the comprehensive outlook of the international procedures for the safety of consumer products.

In the afternoon session, Naseem Mohammed Rafee, delivered a presentation on regulations and procedures applied in the emirate of Dubai, followed by Mishal A. Al Thamimi, Supervisor of Cosmetics Notification Department, SFDA, KSA who spoke on the regulations applied by SFDA. Afifa Bader, Head of Consumer Products Safety Group, Environmental Health Section, Public Health Directorate, Ministry of Health, Bahrain, spoke about on the Bahrain regulations.

The speakers focused on the possibility of application, communication and information exchange among monitoring authorities in the region as well as the unification of procedures and policies applied in the market.

The second day of the forum will focus on GSO safety legislation and improvement plans, ASEAN regulations and harmonisation, international harmonisation projects and modern approach on product standards and market monitoring.

Eng. Redha Salman will be presenting the proposed recommendations of Dubai municipality prior to the closing ceremony and certificate distribution.