CNN--U.S. health officials are warning consumers to stop using some skin bleaching or skin lightening creams because they contain high levels of mercury.
The federal Food and Drug Administration has identified 35 mercury-tainted products sold as soaps, skin creams and lotion, mostly manufactured offshore and sold in Latino, Middle Eastern, African-American and Asian neighbourhoods in at least seven states.
The FDA-named products include goods made by the brands Diana, Stillman’s, Lusco and Crema Aguamary, which are manufactured abroad and sold illegally in the U.S.
The products are marketed as skin lighteners and anti-aging treatments that remove age spots, freckles, blemishes and wrinkles.
“If you have a product that matches these descriptions stop using it immediately,” said Gary Coody, national health fraud coordinator in the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Regulatory Affairs, said in an FDA alert.
Mercury, which is readily absorbed through the skin, can cause illness, nervous system damage and even death, according to the FDA.
“Exposure to mercury can have serious health consequences,” says Dr. Charles Lee, a senior medical adviser at the FDA. “It can damage the kidneys and the nervous system, and interfere with the development of the brain in unborn children and very young children.”
The FDA alert noted that Texas health officials reported samples of face cream they tested contained mercury up to 131,000 times the allowable level and that a southern Texas teenager who used a mercury-containing skin cream was recently hospitalized for mercury poisoning.
In Northern California, a 39-year-old woman had more than 100 times the average amount of mercury in her urine and had symptoms of mercury poisoning, according to the California Department of Public Health.
For three years, the woman and her husband had been using an unlabelled mercury-containing face cream that was brought into the U.S. from Mexico by a relative. Several other family members who did not use the cream, including a 4-year-old child, also had elevated levels of mercury in their bodies, the FDA alert added.
Virginia, Maryland, and New York have also seen cases of elevated mercury levels in people exposed to skin products containing mercury. In Minnesota, 11 of 27 imported skin products taken from store shelves contained mercury.
“Mercury can vaporize and people breathe it in,” said FDA spokesperson Siobhan DeLancey. “That makes it particularly dangerous for infants and small children. They are likely to be picked up and held close to the face. Also, they are so young, and small, and the mercury will accumulate over a lifetime.”
The FDA stated that it does not allow mercury in drugs or in cosmetics, except under very specific conditions, which it says these products do not meet.
“Sellers and distributors should not market these illegal products and may be subject to enforcement action, which could include seizure of the products and other legal sanctions,” said attorney Brad Pace, of the Heath Fraud and Consumer Outreach Branch within FDA’s Centre for Drug Evaluation and Research.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Friday, March 9th 2012 at 12:52PM
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