Skin Whitening Creams With High Mercury Levels Still Sold Online

Skin whitening products containing high levels of mercury continue to be sold on the world's biggest e-commerce platforms, including websites run by eBay, Amazon, and Alibaba, a new report by the Zero Mercury Working Group (ZMWG) finds, Meera Senthilingam reported for CNN.

Photo Insert: The use of mercury in cosmetics is restricted in most countries due to its toxic effects.

The report, shared exclusively with CNN ahead of publishing, is the third by the ZMWG to reveal high levels of mercury in, and the global availability of, skin whitening soaps and creams. This is, however, the group's first report to focus solely on the online sale of these products.

For its research, ZMWG purchased and tested 271 skin lightening products from more than 40 e-commerce sites in 17 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. Of these, 129 products in 16 countries were found to have high levels of mercury and were being sold on more than 30 different sites.

"When we started looking at these products online, there was such widespread use," said Michael Bender, Executive Director of the Mercury Policy Project and a coordinator for ZMWG. "It was like an explosion compared to what we were seeing in the local markets," he told CNN.

The use of mercury in cosmetics is restricted in most countries due to its toxic effects. In 2013, the Minamata Convention on mercury set an international limit for cosmetics of 1mg/kg of mercury, or 1 part per million (ppm) which came into force in 2021, though this excludes eye area cosmetics.

The manufacture, import, and export of cosmetics with over 1 ppm mercury is also prohibited under the global treaty. But 47% of the skin whitening products tested by the ZMWG contained more than the permitted level of mercury, with many containing over 10,000 ppm of mercury -- and some over 50,000 ppm, according to the report.

ZMWG, an international coalition of more than 110 public interest, environmental and health NGOs from over 55 countries, is calling for online e-commerce sites to be made liable for products sold on their platforms and asking that they fully comply with the health and safety laws of countries they are selling in.

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