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Sleazy ISO Credentials and Product Safety

Posted on Jul 26, 2019, jshell55

Here is another story of sleazy ISO Credentials, and it involves sunburn.

In this particular case it also revolves around Ragbrai, the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride across Iowa, which my daughter and I participated in the other day. She complained about sunburn after a day in the sun even after applying sunscreen.

The picture does not do justice to the sunburn in this case. It was on her shoulder. Okay, it was not serious but annoying.

The Sunscreen in Question

Here it is. it’s EAD Broad Spectrum SPF-45. Sunscreen is tested. The broad spectrum sunscreen is tested on a piece of equipment. Here is a link that describes how this is done.

https://www.skincancer.org/prevention/seal-of-recommendation/testing

EAD Used Tube with unclear ISO credentials

Who Made It?

An inspection of the packaging says it was made by something called the European Perfume Works LTD in Bahrain. Here is the EAD Website. The package does have on it a very small serial number. It does not have on it the ISO mark.

A few clicks on the website get you to this screen which lists their “registrations”.

EAD Registrations including Fake ISO Credentials

We can all see the problem with this of course, the website does not reflect the current ISO standard which is ISO9001:2015. More importantly it also does not reflect the registrar that did the registration, nor does it give the certificate number. This means that we can’t figure out whether the cert is legitimate.

So that is Problem #1, improperly listed ISO registration.

More Searching

If you do a search for “European Perfume Works ISO Registration” you do get a return:

SGQC is the registrar that certified these guys to the “Energy Management Standard.” Here is the SGQC Website.

Is the Registrar Legitimate?

So the first question is: Is SGQC legitimate? Further clicking gives a screen with this link:

and this is to IRQAO which is the organization that accredits them, and in fact, this company is registered. Further clicking gives this result:

unclear ISO Credentials, scope is not appropriate for the certification they supposedly gave.

So SGQC is registered to the ISO17021 standard, meaning that they are at least registered to conduct audits. The ISO9000 Store does have in it a description of the sub-versions of this which pertain to specific management system standards, but there is no indication of this in the SGQC above.

So there is a loose end questioning whether the registrar is specifically able to conduct ISO9001 audits. None of this tells you whether European Perfume Works is registered to the ISO9001 standard.

SGQC does have a other seals of approval on their website as well:

Of these the IAF is the one that matters because they are an accreditation body but there is no searchable database yet to determine the story.

IAS

IAS is the company in California that registered European Perfume Works to ISO17025. This is the listing for European Perfume Works:

So, EPW is at least certified as an ISO17025 accredited laboratory, and further clicking has their certificate:

The Bottom Line

We know that EPW has a registered lab, that at least for the time being is meeting the international standard for testing sunscreen by the approved method. We also know that they have an ISO-conformant energy management system.

None of this says that they are conforming to the international standard for their quality management system to make sure it is good. Details, details.

Other Certifications

EPW did claim to have ISO14001, GMP and ISO 18001 Occupational Health and Safety registration. But there are no certificates, and no way to trace back to any accredited third party registrar.

So who would sell this stuff?

You guessed it. Although, reports are that this came from one of these places like Dollar Tree.

A Second Possibility

This could be a case of sleazy ISO Credentials or simple counterfeiting

It is a long shot but it is possible that the tube I have is actually counterfeit. The package above is slightly different than the package from the tube we have. It is possible that on top of all of the above issues, the actual sunscreen is knockoff from an unknown source.

I have to say that if I was a sleazy producer of sunscreen I would want to knock off a reputable brand.

Why do Sleazy ISO Credentials Matter?

So in the grand scheme of things, a little harmless sunburn, what is the big deal? The first big deal is that it is a product safety issue. You would not want to use this sun lotion on a baby, for example.

European Perfume Works does sell a lot of other cosmetics and various other products including a line of energy drinks. Do you want to trust them now?

The second big deal is that people that claim the registration and then produce inferior products lowers the value of the registration.

Who now can trust SGQC? Are they now tainted? I suppose if I bring this situation to their attention, maybe something will change.

Thirdly are there no repercussions for Amazon to be selling products with tainted ISO registration? Apparently not. This is the second incidence of this we’ve encountered recently.