The Academy underlines that “the precautionary principle cannot justify adopting a permanent alarming posture, in particular when based on a non-pertinent experiment, and while many baby care products have been used for several generations in the World without any visible sanitary consequences”. “Medicine can only be based on facts,” the Academy says, adding that “alarming the public without any proof can hardly be considered as a scientific and ethical attitude”.

Earlier in September, the Committee for sustainable development in the health sector (Comité pour le développement durable en santé - C2DS), an action group gathering French scientists and hospital executives, pointed out cosmetics offered in maternities, alleging they would contain a “toxic cocktail” of chemical substances. In addition, a few weeks later, the French Minister of Health, Mrs. Roselyne Bachelot, said she would call upon the French Agency for the Medical Safety of Health Products (AFSSAPS) to assess the risks posed by cosmetics during pregnancy and for young children, “in particular cosmetics offered in maternities”.

While being globally reassuring about the safety of products, the French Academy of medicine nevertheless stresses that some data are lacking regarding babies’ physiology, in particular, few is known about percutaneous absorption. The Academy therefore recommends:

 “to limit as much as possible the number of ingredients used in the formulation of products intended to use with babies and young children,” a number which is currently estimated between 8 and 15,
 “to formulate baby care products only with substances backed by demonstrated safety records,”
 “to clearly label the full list of ingredients used in the composition of baby care products”,
 “to engage adequate and relevant scientific studies”
 “to reinforce the control over cosmetic products and their side effects”