> the intended effect of the product is not cosmetic I mean, what is the working definition of "cosmetic"? Toothpaste and moisturizer are considered cosmetic b

> the intended effect of the product is not cosmetic I mean, what is the working definition of "cosmetic"? Toothpaste and moisturizer are considered cosmetic by the FDA even though they certainly have health applications. > they will make back their investment very quickly The key words here are very quickly. According to the GAO, the process is anything but: https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-18-61-highlights.pdf https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-18-61-highlights.pdf > Return on investment. The testing FDA requested is extensive, would cost millions of dollars, or take several years to conduct, according to sponsor representatives. Some stakeholders and sponsor representatives said that sponsors are currently working to develop newer sunscreen ingredients and are therefore reluctant to invest in the testing FDA requested for the older ingredients covered by the pending applications. So it's unclear that this process is worth it when the foreign cosmetics companies can just sell to the other 7.6B people not covered by these requirements, and the products might no longer be manufactured by the time they are approved for use in the US. Also, no ingredient has successfully made it through in the past 22 years, so it's not clear that spending all that money will actually result in actually being able to sell the ingredient. In addition, according to the same GAO report, the FDA requires animal testing. It is a really big movement right now in consumer cosmetics that the consumers who are paying for premium products also want cruelty-free products, so the required FDA testing may actually make the products unmarketable. > if they don't poison people or the planet To be clear, the approved ingredients don't necessarily do this either. Only two ingredients of the approved 16 are deemed to be GRASE (generally recognized as safe & effective) by the FDA. Two are just not safe, and the remaining 12 do not have enough data. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/understanding-over-counter-medicines/questions-and-answers-fda-posts-deemed-final-order-and-proposed-order-over-counter-sunscreen https://www.fda.gov/drugs/understanding-over-counter-medicin...