Mercury-Containing Skin Whitening Cosmetics

IPEN members have tested skin bleaching, lightening and whitening cosmetics from retailers and online shopping platforms for the presence of mercury, finding high levels of the toxic metal in many products. Their research supports the implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which set a global phase-out target by 2020 of certain mercury-added products such as cosmetics, including skin lightening creams and soaps, with mercury content above 1 part per million (ppm). Mercury use in cosmetics is dangerous and unnecessary and reflects racist, colonial attitudes about skin color and beauty.

In Pakistan, research by IPEN member Sustainable Development Policy Institute in 2018 found 56 of 59 skin whitening products tested contained mercury above the safety limit (1 part per million or 1ppm). In another study from IPEN member EcoWaste Coalition in the Philippines, of the 65 samples screened for mercury, 40 were found to contain mercury above the safety limit, including 38 products with mercury above 1,000 ppm; 25 with mercury above 5,000 ppm; 19 with mercury above 15,000 ppm; and 5 with mercury above 25,000 ppm.