LW-16-17 The Safety of Regulated Consumer Products and MOAH

Description:

In May of 2015, a German consumer organization (Stiftung Warentest) published an article that raised concerns over a class of compounds termed Mineral Oil Aromatic Hydrocarbons or “MOAH” present in many common consumer products. Since refined petroleum products are widely used in personal care and food applications, the safety of these refined products were specifically called into question. This paper explores the science behind the current regulatory framework based on Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) content to ensure product safety and its superiority over MOAH approaches. The history and current practices of refinery process to remove PAH in petroleum and natural products will also be discussed. Current PAH regulatory compliance of petroleum and natural products will also be presented with surprising results. Finally, the paper recommends an approach to focus on the correct compounds of concern, PAH, actively refine all products, petroleum and natural, for their removal and verify control efficacy using long established quantitative methods.