E-commerce giants under fire

safe and legal cosmetics.

“Not only should they remove all illegal products from their websites immediately, but they must develop a system to ensure that toxic products remain out of their supplychains,” declared Lunder.

The WHO says mercury is a common ingredient found in skin lightening soaps and creams. It is also found in other cosmetics, such as eye makeup cleansing products and mascara.

“Skin lightening soaps and creams are commonly used in certain African and Asian nations. They are also used among dark- skinned populations in Europe and North America.”

In Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Togo, 25 percent, 77 percent, 27 percent, 35 percent and 59 percent of women, respectively, are reported to use skin lightening products on a regular basis, says WHO.

In 2017 and 2018, 338 skinlightening creams from 22 countries were collected by 17 NGO partners and tested for mercury, according to the group.

And 35 creams ( 10.4 percent of the samples) had mercury concentrations ranging from 260 to 16,353 ppm.

These levels significantly exceeded not only regulations in many countries, but also new provisions in the Minamata Convention disallowing, after 2020, the “manufacture, import or export” of cosmetics with a mercury above 1 ppm.

The health consequences include damage to the skin, eyes, lungs, kidneys, digestive, immune and nervous systems.

The Mercury Policy Project, the Sierra Club and the European Environmental Bureau say they have purchased skin lighteners from eBay and Amazon websites.

The brands purchased included

mercury by New York City, the state of Minnesota, countries of the European Union, Singapore, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Philippines, among others.

Of these, 19 products had illegal mercury levels, typically more than 10,000 times higher than the legal threshold of 1 ppm.

In their letters, the groups are calling on Amazon and eBay to:

1. Ensure the products they sell comply with government regulations; monitor lists of toxic skin lighteners

them out of their inventory; and

2. Add skin lightening cream products to a list of categories requiring prior approval before sale; and require that sellers provide documentation verifying that the products do not contain mercury and that the products are otherwise compliant with all applicable regulations.

Out of the 22 countries where the global cosmetics sampling took place, 14 have legislation or other requirements consistent with the Minamata convention provisions, the letter says.

Out of the seven countries where high mercury samples were found, only four have legal requirements prohibiting creams with more than 1 ppm mercury content.

The Zero Mercury showed also that in:

– in Bangladesh, 50 percent of the creams sampled and tested had mercury content exceeding 1 ppm.

– in the Dominican Republic, one out of 3 samples had mercury above 1 ppm (33 percent), whereas in Indonesia it reached 31 percent.

– in Mauritius, one out of 15 creams was found to contain more than 1 ppm ( 7 percent).

– in the Philippines, 19 percent of the samples exceeded 1 ppm mercury content, while the Thai samples reached 63.

– in Trinidad and Tobago, 20 percent of the samples tested also exceeded the Minamata limits.

The group’s research demonstrates that hazardous substance restrictions and accompanying risk communication strategies in many countries are incomplete and/or inadequately enforced.

“This thereby raises the risk of health effects, primarily to women.”

However, as the Minamata Convention on Mercury provision pertaining to cosmetics take effect after 2020, new opportunities for countries to reduce exposure to mercury from skin lighteners are emerging, including resources that may become available to Parties for the following, perhaps in collaboration with all levels of government and civil society:

1. Development and adoption of national government cosmetic regulations;

2. Continuously updated global government detention website listing of product violations, testing including product photo, manufacture, country of origin, seller identification, links, etc.

3. Enhanced harmonization and increased enforcement of by custom officials at borders;

4. Effective risk communication to consumers at risk and in particular pregnant and nursing mothers and woman of child bearing age;

5. Effective oversight of the marketplace;

6. Adoption of effective labeling guidelines to assure consumers are provided with the necessary information on hazardous substances, but also on alternatives, since they may contain other hazardous substances;

7. Effective cyber crime oversight of the internet, in global collaboration with Interpol, (since most lighteners are imported); and

8. Through national ad councils, assuring that non-discriminatory advertising guidelines do not reinforce negative social stereotyping on the basis of skin color.

Globally, mercury-based products are a big business. Demand is skyrocketing, especially in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, with sales of $ 17.9 billion in 2017, and projected to reach $31.2 billion by 2024, according to Global Industry Analysts.

Skin lightening products — also known as “bleaching creams,” “whiteners,” “skin brighteners,” or “fading creams” — work when inorganic Mercury salts ( e. g. 1- 10 percent ammoniated mercury) inhibit the formation of melanin, resulting in a lighter skin tone.