Creams remain online despite mercury findings

Skin-whitening creams identified as containing potentially dangerous levels of mercury continue to be sold online more than seven months after a watchdog group raised the alarm, including on platforms run by eBay, Amazon. com and Alibaba.

The findings come at a time when skin lightening, a multi-billion dollar industry especially popular in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, is under renewed criticism for promoting light skin as a beauty ideal.

Many countries ban or restrict mercury in creams, which can damage the kidneys, brain and nervous system. An international ban on manufacturing products with mercury in them comes into effect at end of 2020.

The Zero Mercury Working Group (ZMWG), an international coalition of non-governmental organisations, issued a report last November that found unacceptable levels of mercury in 95 skin-lightening creams out of 158 samples tested.

ZMWG bought more than two-thirds of the creams online, including on Flipkart, majority-owned by Walmart; South Africa’s Bidorbuy; Nigeria’s Jumia; and Lazada and Daraz, which are both part of the Alibaba Group and operate in Southeast and South Asia, respectively, as well as on Amazon and eBay.

One month after its report came out, ZMWG said that eBay, Lazada and Daraz had pledged to remove its high-mercury product listings but had not done so, while Amazon removed products from its US and european platforms, but not in India.

Checks in late June showed at least 19 listings of the products on different country sites run by all seven e-commerce platforms.

As of July 10, brands cited by ZMWG continued to pop up, including on Daraz, Amazon, and eBay.