Watchdog: Prohibited skin products being sold in Pasay malls

Be happy with your skintone.

This was the advice of an environmentalist group to people who might fall victim to mercury-laden whitening products being sold in Pasay City malls despite a ban on them by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).

Over the weekend, Ecowaste Coalition bought from discount stores in three malls 12 imported skin whitening products, eight of which are among the 77 banned by the FDA for exceeding the regulatory limit of mercury at 1 part per million (ppm).

Ecowaste said it detected high levels of mercury in four other beauty products, including one labeled in Chinese characters, which are still not included in the FDA’s list of banned cosmetics.—Jeannette I. Andrade