Toxics watchdog EcoWaste Coalition urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct a crackdown on the rampant selling of banned mercury-laden cosmetic products in Pasay City.
“We appeal to the concerned FDA offices to take immediate action in close coordination with the local government and police authorities to shut down the unlawful display, promotion, and sale of cosmetics adulterated with mercury in Pasay City, which poses a serious threat to human health and the environment, too,” Aileen Lucero, the national coordinator of EcoWaste, said In a statement released on Sunday, July 21,
“Please deploy your inspectors and enforce the law.”
EcoWaste reported discovering FDA-banned skin-lightening products being sold at various stores within popular budget malls in Pasay City, specifically at Baclaran Terminal Plaza Mall, Two Shopping Center, and Wellcome Plaza Mall, on July 19.
The group noted that the use of such products can expose users and even non-users to mercury, a potent neurotoxin that is forbidden in the composition of cosmetic products such as skin lighteners. “These stores continue to defy the FDA-issued public health warnings and openly display and sell one or more of the following banned mercury-added cosmetics: Golden Pearl Beauty Cream, Goree Beauty Cream with Lycopene, Goree Day & Night Beauty Cream and Goree Gold 24K Beauty Cream from Pakistan; 88 Total White Underarm Cream from Thailand; Collagen Plus Vit E Day & Night Cream from Indonesia; and Jiaoli Miraculous Cream from China,” the group stated.
According to EcoWaste, the utilization of mercury in cosmetics such as skin-lightening products is banned regionally through the ASEAN Cosmetic Directive and internationally through the Minamata Convention on Mercury. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that mercury in skin-lightening products can cause several adverse health effects, including rashes, skin discoloration, scarring, and lowered resistance to bacterial and fungal skin infections.
As such, the WHO has warned that repeated applications of such products onto the skin can cause damage to the kidneys, the brain, and the central nervous system. The WHO has included mercury in its list of the top 10 chemicals or groups of chemicals that pose significant public health risks, the group noted.