J. Soc. Cosmetic Chemists 20 31-48 (1969) ¸ 1969 Society of Cosmetic Chemist• of Great Britain The influence of the Weights and Measures Act on the packaging scene K. G. JOHNSON* Presented at the symposium or• "Technical developments in cos- roetics packaging", organised by the Society of Cosmetic Chemists of Great Britain, at Harrogate, Yorks., on 26th March 1968. Synopsis--This paper contains a brief summary of those parts of the Weights and Measures Act (1963) relevant to cosmetics, examines the requirements placed upon cosmetic manu- facturers, and the factors that may be considered in packaging and plant design as a result of the Act. With the introduction of the Weights and Measures Act (1963), cosmetics and toiletry articles first came under legislation in this field. As with any new Act, there are many facets with a degree of ambiguity as to precisely what is permitted or what is not. There are also many parts of the Act which do not leave any doubt as to their interpretation. As to the ambiguous parts, •ve as manufacturers can only take advice from our legal advisers or local Weights and Measures officers. None of us as yet are experts and, in fact, if these exist they are probably magistrates or Appeal Court .Judges who will at some stage in the future be called upon to make decisions which will translate the Act into la•v. T• w•zm}•Ts ^NI) •m^SUI•S ACT (1963) The Act lays down that subject to certain exemptions, in any retail sale by quantity, or purporting to be by quantity, the quantity shall be *Beecham Products (U.I(.), Maidenhead, Berks. 31

JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS made known to the buyer. It lays down several ways in which this can be done, for example, by weighing or measuring the goods in the presence of the purchaser, by delivering a statement of quantity on an invoice, or by marking the goods themselves with a statement of quantity. Furthermore any equipment or apparatus used for weighing or measur- ing which is in "use for trade" or any unit of measurement of length, area, volume, capacity, mass or weight, also used for the same purpose comes under the Act (1). This means that it (equipment, weights, measures, etc.) has to be tested, approved and stamped by the Board of Trade and it is subject to periodic checks by an officer of the local Weights and Measures Authority. In this connection the term "use for trade" means use in Great Britain in connection with, or with a view to, a transaction for - (a) the transferring or rendering of money or money's worth in considera- tion of money or money's worth, or (b) the making of a payment in respect of any toll or duty, where - (i) the transaction is by reference to quantity or is a transaction for the purposes of which there is made or implied a statement of the quantity of goods to which the transaction relates and (ii) the use is for the purpose of the determination or statement of that quantity. There are some 14 types of measuring and weighing equipment detailed and specified with regards to their construction, materials of construction and limits of error (2). There are similar regulations covering the instruments and weights to be used by Weights and Measures Officers and here the permitted errors are generally much smaller (3). It is of interest to note here that the imperial standards ceased to exist with the passing of the Weights and Measures Act (1963). For example the pound is defined as 0.45359237kg exactly and the yard as 0.9144 m exactly and, for good measure, the international metre is defined as the length equal to 1,650,763.73 wavelengths in vacuum of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the levels 2p 10 and 5d 5 of the krypton - 86 atom. It must be a very comforting thought to a production line inspector to realise that he only has to divide this by 50 to arrive at the 20 mm level below the neck to which his bottles should be filled. All prepacked containers, except those specially exempt, must be marked in accordance with the Act, which defines certain information regarding the method of marking, size of figures and characters, type of background used for the declaration, units which may be used and their permitted abbreviations (4, 5). There are special regulations covering