Mercury contamination in facial skin lightening creams and its health risks to user

Mercury Levels in Locally Manufactured Mexican Skin-Lightening Creams

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 p...

Beastly Beauty Products: Exposure to Inorganic Mercury in Skin-Lightening Creams

Understanding Branches Out Insights into PBDE Impacts on Brain Development Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants and their hydroxylated metabolites are structurally similar to thyroid hormone. A detailed study now provides one of the most insightful assessments to date of how environmentally relevant levels of PBDEs may impair brain development by interfering with thyroid hormon...

Skin-lightening practices and mercury exposure in the Somali community.

Somali women often use creams and soaps to lighten skin tone, fade freckles or get rid of age spots. Use of these products raises a health concern, as some have been found to contain mercury. This article describes an investigation that involved interviewing Somali women about skin-lightening practices and the products they use and then testing those products for mercury. Twenty-seven samples o...

Characteristics of Mercury Intoxication Induced by Skin-lightening Products

Membranous nephropathy caused by mercury-containing skin lightening cream.

A 46 year old woman developed membranous nephropathy following the use of a mercury-containing skin lightening cream. This association has not been reported in the literature for over a decade and apparently never from this country. It is important that clinicians are aware of this usually eminently treatable cause of the nephrotic syndrome as it is likely to be missed unless specifically enqui...