From Lab to Legislation: How Environmental Science Shapes the Future of Personal Care and Cleaning Products

Date: Friday 17 July 2026
Time: 9.30am - 11.30am AEST  
Venue: Beaumont People | Register via the member portal

Increasingly chemical ingredients are coming under regulatory scrutiny. Sometimes restriction or reformulation pressures are due to a growing body of environmental science, but often claims arise from social media and interested parties based on little or no scientific evidence leading to policy decisions based on precautionary principles.

This session highlights the journey on how environmental science fits into chemical regulation and the importance of keeping our focus on evidence for regulation making. Dr Mitchelmore will explain how ecotoxicologists detect chemical contaminants in the environment, assess their effects on organisms and ecosystems, and produce the environmental risk assessments that ultimately inform regulatory decision-making across jurisdictions including the US, EU, and Australia.

UV filters in sunscreens and cosmetics serve as the central case study. Drawing on her own primary research, Dr Mitchelmore will walk through what the science genuinely shows about the environmental fate and effects of these ingredients, where the evidence is robust, where it remains contested, and how different regulators have responded to the same data in very different ways. It is a revealing example of how science and policy do not always move in lockstep.

The session concludes by asking the question, 'what is coming next?'. Personal care and cleaning product ingredients are increasingly the subject of emerging contaminants of environmental concern. Dr. Mitchelmore will highlight some of these developing issues and offer advice on data gaps and next steps.

Ample time will be reserved for questions and discussion. Morning tea will be served on arrival.

About Dr Carys Mitchelmore