Skin whitener with high mercury content being sold in Pasay, Makati

MANILA, Philippines — An environmental group has warned the public against buying or using a skin whitening product that was recently banned in Sweden for containing a high concentration of mercury.

In a statement on Sunday, EcoWaste Coalition said that as early as 2014, it had flagged Golden Pearl Beauty Cream, a skin whitener made in Pakistan, and six other similar products. All were later banned by the Food and Drug Administration through Advisory No. 2013-053-A after confirmatory tests found these were loaded with “violative levels of mercury.”

The group, however, noted that Golden Pearl Beauty Cream continued to be sold at Guadalupe Shopping Center in Makati City and Baclaran Bagong Milenyo Plaza in Pasay City.

It added that it had asked Makati Mayor Abigail Binay and Pasay Mayor Imelda Calixto-Rubiano to “pass ordinances banning and penalizing the manufacture, importation, distribution and sale of mercury-added skin lightening products to ensure that none of these poison cosmetics are sold to their constituents.”

Citing the European Union’s Rapid Alert System for Dangerous Non-Food Products Sept. 11 report, EcoWaste Coalition’s chemical safety campaigner Thony Dizon said that the product contained at least 16.8 g/kg or 16,800 parts per million (ppm) of mercury.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury recently ratified by the Duterte administration sets a limit of one ppm of mercury in skin lightening products.