IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v8y2011i6p2516-2523d12904.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mercury Levels in Locally Manufactured Mexican Skin-Lightening Creams

Author

Listed:
  • Claudia P. Peregrino

    (Environmental Department, Advanced Material Research Center, Miguel de Cervantes 120, Chihuahua 31109, México)

  • Myriam V. Moreno

    (Environmental Department, Advanced Material Research Center, Miguel de Cervantes 120, Chihuahua 31109, México)

  • Silvia V. Miranda

    (Environmental Department, Advanced Material Research Center, Miguel de Cervantes 120, Chihuahua 31109, México)

  • Alma D. Rubio

    (Environmental Department, Advanced Material Research Center, Miguel de Cervantes 120, Chihuahua 31109, México)

  • Luz O. Leal

    (Environmental Department, Advanced Material Research Center, Miguel de Cervantes 120, Chihuahua 31109, México)

Abstract

Mercury is considered one of the most toxic elements for plants and animals. Nevertheless, in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, whitening creams containing mercury are being manufactured and purchased, despite their obvious health risks. Due to the mass distribution of these products, this can be considered a global public health issue. In Mexico, these products are widely available in pharmacies, beauty aid and health stores. They are used for their skin lightening effects. The aim of this work was to analyze the mercury content in some cosmetic whitening creams using the cold vapor technique coupled with atomic absorption spectrometry (CV-AAS). A total of 16 skin-lightening creams from the local market were investigated. No warning information was noted on the packaging. In 10 of the samples, no mercury was detected. The mercury content in six of the samples varied between 878 and 36,000 ppm, despite the fact that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that the limit for mercury in creams should be less than 1 ppm. Skin creams containing mercury are still available and commonly used in Mexico and many developing countries, and their contents are poorly controlled.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudia P. Peregrino & Myriam V. Moreno & Silvia V. Miranda & Alma D. Rubio & Luz O. Leal, 2011. "Mercury Levels in Locally Manufactured Mexican Skin-Lightening Creams," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-8, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:8:y:2011:i:6:p:2516-2523:d:12904
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/8/6/2516/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/8/6/2516/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ayoub A. ALqadami & Mohammad Abulhassan Abdalla & Zeid A. ALOthman & Kamal Omer, 2013. "Application of Solid Phase Extraction on Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes of Some Heavy Metal Ions to Analysis of Skin Whitening Cosmetics Using ICP-AES," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, January.
    2. Agnieszka Fischer & Barbara Brodziak-Dopierała & Krzysztof Loska & Jerzy Stojko, 2017. "The Assessment of Toxic Metals in Plants Used in Cosmetics and Cosmetology," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-12, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:8:y:2011:i:6:p:2516-2523:d:12904. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.