The Food and Drug Administration’s proposal to ban the use of formaldehyde as an ingredient in hair relaxers and hair straighteners on the market in the U.S. has been pushed back yet again.
The deadline for the agency's proposal, at this time, still remains unclear. The FDA's proposed rule takes a large step in shedding light on the potential harm that formaldehyde — a highly toxic, colorless gas — can cause to the many Black women and other women of color who typically use straightening products. In October, NPR reported that the federal agency proposed the ban and scheduled its implementation for April 2024.
The first deadline for the scheduled ban implementation was missed and pushed back to July 2024. Most recently, the agency moved the target date to September 2024 . On April 3, the FDA told NPR in an email that the action date for the proposed ban was set for April 2024 and that officials were "still developing the proposed rule.
" At that time, a spokesperson declined to comment further about the timing or the ban's detailed content. But when pressed about the status of the ban to the federal agency in May and, most recently, this month, an FDA spokesperson told NPR that the proposed rule "continues to be a high priority." They declined again to comment further about its timing or content.
When asked Friday for clarification about why there have been numerous delays in implementing the proposed ban, a spokesperson told NPR that the process for implementing propose.