Vendors in Baclaran defy ban on toxic skin creams

Some skin whitening creams which were banned for their high mercury content a year ago by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continue to be sold in flea markets in the Baclaran area, according to an environmental group.

EcoWaste Coalition aired the warning in an e-mailed statement Monday after it made another round of test buys on Aug. 4 to find out if FDA Advisory 2011-012—which was issued exactly a year ago—was being enforced.

The government agency had ordered the recall of 50 brands of skin lightening products after tests showed that these contained amounts of mercury beyond the “allowable limit” of one part per million (ppm).

It had also banned their sale and importation under Republic Act No. 9711 or the FDA Act of 2009.

As a result, EcoWaste said it was surprised when its members found out that the products were still being sold in the market at prices ranging from P70 to P220.

“We call on our food and drug regulators, together with the city governments of Parañaque and Pasay, to flex some muscle, confiscate the contraband goods and file charges against erring stores and their proprietors,” said Aileen Lucero, the group’s safe cosmetics campaigner.

On Saturday, the group went to Baclaran and bought six of the FDA-banned products. It also bought four other whitening products that had “incomplete and dubious” information on their labels.

“These deceivingly unhealthy products bragged about their herbal or natural extracts such as garlic, gingko biloba and ginseng but none listed mercury as an ingredient,” Lucero said.

After a mercury analysis using a portable X-Ray Fluorescence device, the group found out that the 10 products contained excessive mercury levels with Miss Beauty Magic Cream registering the highest amount of the toxic ingredient at 12,700 ppm.

According to the World Health Organization, the use of mercury-tainted products can cause kidney damage, skin diseases, anxiety, depression and mental illness.

The products purchased by EcoWaste Coalition which it described as having “dubious” information on their labels were Panive 7-Day Whitening Speckle Removing Series (with the label containing no information about the product manufacturer or distributor); Qian Mei (product label and insert written in Chinese, Russian and Thai); Spring Return Ginseng and Pearl Natural Pure Plants Whitening Cream (supposedly  from New York, USA) and TVC Spot Removal Cream (from Mexico but made in PRC or People’s Republic of China).

On the other hand, the six FDA-banned products were Jiaoli Miraculous Cream, Jiaoli 7-Days Specific Eliminating Freckle AB Set, Miss Beauty Magic Cream, Miss Beauty Excellent Therapy Whitening Cream, Miss Beauty Excellent Therapy Whitening Cream and S’Zitang.