Asians Continue to Use Skin Whitening Products Despite Their Toxic Levels of Mercury

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article used a photo of Fair and Lovely skin whitening cream. Unilever states that Fair and Lovely does not contain Mercury or any other dangerous substances. It has received certification from BPOM and had received halal certification from MUI. We apologise for the error.

To this day, most countries in Asia still have an unhealthy, consuming obsession with white skin. Lightening products--from creams, soaps, and lotions--are commonplace on bedside tables and bathroom counters, despite reports finding that many of them contain toxic amounts of mercury.

The metal has become a standard ingredient in cosmetics and skincare products because of its ability to act like bleach, according to Bloomberg. The Aug. 28 report states that the mercury market earns about $20 billion a year, in large part because of the beauty industry.

While mercury is also found in branded products, they’re more common in cheap counterfeit versions. Take Goree Beauty Cream with Lycopene, for example. A jar worth just $5 was found to have 23,000 parts per million (ppm) of mercury, according to an X-ray fluorescence analyser used by the Philippine-based EcoWaste Coalition. Another product by the same brand Goree Day and Night Whitening Cream contains 19,900ppm.

These creams are banned in the Philippines but local sellers still offer them online. Similar products are also available around the world through eBay, Amazon, and Facebook. Most don’t explicitly say that they contain mercury. The label on Chinese cream Feique simply reads “contains minerals,” when it actually contains up to 19,200ppm of mercury, the EcoWaste Coalition found.

Mercury can lighten skin but the aftermath is not glamorous. It can reportedly lead to discoloured skin, anxiety, depression, and nerve or kidney damage.

Various organisations are now trying to curb the trend. In November 2018, the Minamata Convention on Mercury had 128 countries sign an agreement that ensures that the “manufacture, import or export” of products with any trace of mercury will be banned after 2020.

Skin whitening products are huge in Asia, with many risking their lives for the promise of lighter skin. A report by Global Industry Analysts Inc. from March 2018 projected the market for skin lighteners to reach $31.2 billion by 2024 because of demand from Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

In 2004, the World Health Organization found that nearly 40 percent of women in China, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Korea use skin lightening products frequently. In India, over 61 percent of the skincare market is made up of these sorts of products.

Some governments have even started to address the issue. In July, Pakistan’s Ministry of Climate Change declared a nationwide crackdown on whitening creams that use an “excessive amount of mercury.”

Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority, meanwhile, called on the public to stop the use of products like Goree Beauty Cream last year following a report that tagged eighteen beauty products to have high-levels of mercury. They told people to avoid them at all costs.

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