Section 3: MERCURY IN COSMETICS

 MERCURY IN COSMETICS

In general cosmetics have formaldehyde, heavy metals, quaternium-15, parabens, lanolin, p- phenylenediamine (PPD), methylchloroisothiazolinone, methylisothiazolinone, and colophonium as ingredients (Khan et al., 2021)

Heavy metals may be included intentionally or introduced as an impurity during the production

process(Witkowska et al., 2021). Mercury is one of the important heavy metals included in cosmetics and especially plays a key role in bleaching the skin. Salts of mercury inhibit melanin formation by competing with copper tyrosinase which results in skin lightening. Mercury is added as an ingredient in the inorganic form. Those products have usually contained mercury and mercury salts such as ammoniated mercury, mercury iodide, mercurous chloride, mercurous oxide, and mercuric chloride. The limit of mercury in skin-lightening products has been set as 1mg/kg (1 ppm) by the Minamata Convention on mercury and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The European Union has banned mercury contents in cosmetics while Canadian authorities have set the limit as 3 ppm (Attard & Attard, n.d.)

Despite having regulations and guidelines in place, due to increased demand many small and medium industries have emerged among large companies. Increasing the mercury level will give quick results and will easily convince consumers to buy products.

Many studies have revealed the elevated level of mercury content in cosmetic items. Most Asian Countries have products with an elevated level of mercury content (Table A) and while European and American countries have less/no mercury content (Table B) as per (Afzal et al., 2018b) in reference to the (Khwaja, 2017)

Puścion-Jakubik et al., 2022 have reported, almost all tested creams in their study revealed elevated levels of mercury. Consumer Affairs Authority of Sri Lanka has revealed in a news article that during the market surveillance, a skin whitening product named Maalika had found to have a mercury level of 51,000 mg/kg (www.dailymirror.lk).

Khan et al., 2021 have stated that elevated levels of mercury which is the third most hazardous chemical have been found in various cosmetics in Pakistan. This placed the country among the nations with high mercury content. The study also stated that skin-whitening creams come out on top of famous brands with the highest sales.