The aim of the focus campaign was to ascertain the current status of the use of zinc pyrithione in anti-dandruff products on the domestic market. Zinc pyrithione, for many years an important active ingredient for dandruff control in cosmetics, has now been banned.

29 samples from all over Austria were examined, five samples were objected to:

• Zinc pyrithione was detected in three shampoos
• One anti-dandruff shampoo due to misleading advertising statements: the overall presentation gave the impression that the anti-dandruff effect was based on natural substances, the chemical synthetic anti-dandruff active ingredient piroctone olamine was not mentioned
• A cosmetic product due to the lack of notification.