Wazzup Pilipinas!?
EcoWaste Coalition pushes for concerted action to rid the market of dangerous cosmetics with mercury
10 October 2025, Quezon City. The Office of the New York State Attorney General (OAG) has ordered three companies to immediately stop selling skin lightening products contaminated with high concentrations of mercury, a potent neurotoxin. Among those banned were contraband facial creams flagged by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Philippines in 2017, 2021 and 2024.
In a press release issued last October 8, the OAG said that three New York companies have sold dozens of cosmetics with mercury content up to 30,000 times the legal limit of less than one part per million (ppm).
“Mercury is poison, not a beauty treatment, and no company has any business selling it to consumers. Products with mercury this high are dangerous and illegal,” said New York State AG Letitia James. “We will not let companies profit by endangering New Yorkers’ health.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the “adverse health effects of the inorganic mercury contained in skin lightening creams and soaps include kidney damage, skin rashes, skin discoloration and scarring, reduction in the skin’s resistance to bacterial and fungal infections, anxiety, depression, psychosis and peripheral neuropathy.”
The OAG’s action is in line with New York's Mercury Out of Cosmetics law prohibiting the sale of any cosmetic or personal care product containing mercury other than in trace amounts, which took effect in June 2023.
“We commend the OAG of New York State and its partners in the government and the civil society for this inspiring collaboration to promote and ensure the safety of the public, especially people of color and their children, against the damaging effects of mercury in skin lightening products to human health and the ecosystems,” said Aileen Lucero, National Coordinator, EcoWaste Coalition.
The OAG is working with the Department of Environmental Conservation, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, and the Zero Mercury Working Group to protect vulnerable communities from mercury in skin lighteners and other products.
Among the 21 products found contaminated with mercury by OAG investigators were Faiza Beauty Cream, Golden Pearl Beauty Cream, Goree Beauty Cream with Lycopene, Parley Goldie Advanced Beauty Cream, and Sandal Beauty Cream.
These products are also among the hundreds of skin lightening products that have been flagged by the FDA for being sold without valid certificates of product notification and/or for containing mercury above the one ppm limit under the ASEAN Cosmetic Directive.
The EcoWaste Coalition reported to the FDA the detection of high levels of mercury in Faiza Beauty Cream, Golden Pearl Beauty Cream, Parley Goldie Advanced Beauty Cream, and Sandal Beauty Cream -- all labeled "made in Pakistan" -- leading to the subsequent issuance of public health advisories in 2021 and 2024.
The FDA banned mercury-containing Goree Beauty Cream with Lycopene, also from Pakistan, much earlier in 2017.
However, the illegal importation, distribution and sale of the FDA-flagged products, Goree in particular, has not ceased, the EcoWaste Coalition lamented.
To address this persistent threat to human health and the environment, the EcoWaste Coalition repeated its call for strengthened action at all levels to effectively enforce the ban on mercury use in cosmetics under the Minamata Convention.
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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