Many Skin-care Products Contain Toxic Mercury: Study

Many skin creams and lotions contain mercury, warns a new study.

Health experts recently found a surging rise in the usage of harmful toxic waste in skincare and cosmetic substances. They add, while many nations suffer from the redundancy of hazardous substances and pollutants released from old digital devices and industrial and chemical wastes, manufacturers create anti-blemish and lightening lotions with mercury.

"In the U.S., the limit on mercury in products is 1 part per million. In some of these creams, we've been finding levels as high as 210,000 parts per million really substantial amounts of mercury. If people are using the product quite regularly, their hands will exude it, it will get in their food, on their countertops, on the sheets their kids sleep on," said  Gordon Vrdoljak, Ph.D., of the California Department of Public Health in a news release.

Detecting the presence of toxic chemicals in cosmetics and lotions is a tedious task. Therefore, the researchers used a method called the total reflection x-ray fluorescence that accurately measures mercury levels in product samples. The team noted the technique very effective in preventing mercury poisoning.

"Testing one product using the old technique could take days. Using the new instrument, I can run through 20 or 30 samples in a day quite easily. By identifying those products that contain mercury, we can direct people to remove them and clean up their households," adds Vrdoljak.

Beauty and cosmetic industry across the U.S. Asia, Africa, Central America and Middle East extensively makes uses of harmful elements including mercury even though, it has no positive results on skin like reducing dark spots, blemishes and acne. Many nations have lesser restrictions or imposed a complete ban on mercury based balms and skin creams. Yet, many people purchase these products in bulk to export or distribute it to family or friends.

Prolonged exposure to mercury-based products cause kidney damage, headache, depression, fatigue and gradual decline in mental capabilities. Urine tests are the only way to identify if people have ingested high amount of the toxic metal. The scientists recommend consumers to discontinue usage of these creams and seek medical help in case they experience symptoms of mercury poisoning like frequent hand tremors and headaches.

The authors believe mercury screening must be done on a large scale and regulatory authorities must recall skin creams with high doses of chemicals and mercury.

"In the U.S., it's hard to gauge how much of these products are being used. But at least with this new technique, we can identify them much faster and help more people than before," said Vrdoljak.

The research will be presented at the 248th national meeting and exposition of the American Chemical Society.