Wazzup Pilipinas!?
In a deeply troubling revelation that strikes at the core of public health and consumer safety, environmental watchdog BAN Toxics has exposed the ongoing sale of skin-lightening products laced with toxic mercury in Daet, Camarines Norte and Naga City, Camarines Sur—despite a nationwide ban issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Between April 26 and 29, BAN Toxics conducted a sweeping market investigation that unveiled the rampant availability of products that should have long been pulled from the shelves: Goree Beauty Cream with Lycopene, Goree Day and Night Beauty Cream, and 88 Underarm Whitening Cream. These skin-lightening products (SLPs) are not only unregistered but have also been flagged for containing alarmingly high levels of mercury—a potent neurotoxin known to wreak havoc on the human body.
“The FDA issuance against unnotified cosmetic products containing toxic mercury should serve as a public health warning,” said Thony Dizon, Toxics Campaigner of BAN Toxics. “These products are hazardous to human health, yet the continued sale of SLPs remains unchecked.”
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The findings are not just disturbing—they are staggering. Using a state-of-the-art Vanta C Series XRF Handheld Chemical Analyzer, BAN Toxics previously tested 50 samples of skin-lightening products. The results were horrifying:
Goree Beauty Cream with Lycopene was found to contain 16,100 parts per million (ppm) of mercury.
Goree Day and Night Beauty Cream had 17,200 ppm.
88 Underarm Whitening Cream held 2,580 ppm.
All these values obliterate the 1 ppm safety threshold established by the ASEAN Cosmetics Directive.
Mercury, identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the top chemicals of major health concern, poses severe threats to the nervous, digestive, and immune systems. Long-term exposure can lead to organ damage, neurological disorders, and even death. For unsuspecting consumers—most of whom are women seeking fairer complexions under the guise of beauty standards—these products are nothing short of a silent killer.
The continued circulation of these banned products reflects a glaring lapse in enforcement, as well as a persistent cultural fixation on skin lightening—a dangerous combination fueling a toxic underground beauty economy. While these creams promise a lighter complexion, they deliver irreversible health consequences instead.
Adding weight to BAN Toxics’ call is its collaboration with the Zero Mercury Working Group (ZMWG), a global coalition that has warned of mercury-laced cosmetics being readily available worldwide despite international commitments under the Minamata Convention on Mercury, to which the Philippines is a signatory.
The watchdog is urging beauty shop owners to perform due diligence and ensure that all cosmetic products in their inventories carry valid Cosmetic Product Notifications from the FDA. More critically, BAN Toxics demands that regulatory agencies intensify post-marketing surveillance and enforce immediate action to rid store shelves of these toxic products.
This is not just a call for better regulation—it is a cry for justice, accountability, and public protection. How many more lives must be endangered before we collectively act?
The Wazzup Pilipinas founder joins BAN Toxics in amplifying the call to strengthen consumer education, enforce existing bans with urgency, and most importantly, to challenge the harmful beauty norms that push our kababayans into using products that ultimately do more harm than good.
The toxic truth is out. The time to act is now.
For more information and updates, follow Wazzup Pilipinas and BAN Toxics across their official platforms.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
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