The move was part of the efforts to provide the best services for its customers and work to develop continuously, especially in the area of testing and analysis of consumer goods in order to protect consumers from products not conforming to the specifications, which are detrimental to public health and safety and the national economy.

The opening ceremony held at The Address Hotel was attended by Eng. Mohammed Badri, Director General of Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology, Eng. Salem Mesmar, Assistant Director General of Dubai Municipality for Health, Safety and Environment Monitoring Sector, Eng. Abdullah Rafia, Assistant Director General for General Support Services Sector, Eng. Salah Amiri, Assistant Director General for Environmental and Public Health Services Sector and representatives of municipalities and local departments and the world’s leading companies in the field of cosmetics, personal care and perfumes.

The launch of the new laboratory is part of the plan of Dubai government’s strategic policies in order to raise the quality standards and consumer protection. It is also part of the keenness of DCL to develop more analytical services, studies and scientific research and operations to achieve the vision of Dubai Municipality to build an excellent city that provides the essence of success and comfort of living so as to ensure optimum application of the system of control and development, as appropriate for that vision and excellence.

Farah Al Zarouni, Head of Consumer Materials Laboratory gave a presentation on the various services available in her laboratory, such as testing precious stones like diamonds, pearls and different colored stones and precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum, testing and registration services for household electrical appliances, testing services for all cosmetics and personal care items, services to test different textile products such as clothing and fabrics, decoration, and toys and childcare items safety testing services.

Eng. Hawa Bastaki, Director of Dubai Central Laboratory Department said that perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and aroma compounds, fixatives and solvents used to give the human body, object and living spaces a pleasant smell.

Bastaki said the Consumer Materials Laboratory conducts several tests on aromatic products including Visual inspection, Turbidity test, Determination of Essential Oil content, Determination of Ethanol Content, Determination of Methanol in relation to Ethanol content, Determination Propan-1-ol, Determination of Diethyl Phthalate content, Determination of Bitrex content, and Determination of Allergic substances such as Amyl Cinnamal, Benzyl Alcohol, Cinnamyl Alcohol, Citral, Eugenol, Hydroxy-citronellal, Isoeugenol, Amylcin-namyl Alcohol, Benzyl Salicylate, Cinnamal, Coumarin and Geraniol.

She said the laboratory has the latest hardware using high-resolution technologies, to conduct tests and to draw conclusions, and these devices include Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS), Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatograph (UPLC), Refractometer, Polarimeter, and Incubators.