The Senate has passed the Sunscreen Innovation Act through a unanimous consent agreement. The bill, which passed the House of Representatives in late July 2014, aims to streamline how new ingredients for over-the-counter sunscreen products are approved. The sunscreen bill now returns to the House of Representatives for further action. Several over-the-counter sunscreen ingredients have languished in the current FDA approval process for 12 years, with the last ingredient being approved in the 1990s. Concerns that consumers in the U.S. were not able to take advantage of new sunscreen technologies prompted Congress to investigate and address the backlog.

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