Mercury in Skin Whitening Cream Blamed for Sight Loss

A woman in Minnesota lost part of her vision “most likely from using beauty products containing high levels” of mercury, according to a case report shared on CNN. The products, produced outside the US, were not named and the woman remains anonymous. Skin whiteners and bleaching agents are widely used in markets around the world.

The report, made public by Dr. Erin Batdorff with the Minnesota Poison Control System, details the extensive symptoms experienced by the woman, also a mother, and how home visits conducted by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) found high levels of mercury in her children's bedrooms, bedding, household towels and laundry area.

The woman was referred to Batdorff's team after she reported an array of symptoms to multiple doctors, ranging from insomnia and leg pain to muscle weakness, fatigue and, eventually, the loss of her peripheral vision. Clinical tests revealed elevated levels of mercury in her blood and urine.

Batdorff explained that the most common symptoms she sees from potential mercury poisoning is tingling or numbness in a patient's hands or feet. She described the woman's loss of vision as “a more extreme and permanent symptom.”

“She will not recover her vision,” Batdorff told CNN. “So being a young woman that now has vision loss is really frightening and pretty concerning.”

Mercury blocks melanin production. US Federal Drug Agency regulations and the Minamata Convention on Mercury limit the use of mercury in cosmetics, excluding those used around the eye area, to 1mg/kg of mercury, aka 1ppm. Earlier this year, it was reported that skin whitening creams containing high levels of mercury were sold on eBay and Amazon.

The Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) notes that in 1974, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned any cosmetics product that contains more than unavoidable traces of mercury with very limited exceptions. As a result of the known hazards of mercury, FDA has taken regulatory action against mercury-containing skin lightening products that sometimes illegally enter the United States from other countries. For example, here is a 2019 FDA press release about a mercury-containing skin cream.

In a statement, PCPC said:

“The Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) agrees with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) – the agency responsible for enforcing regulations on these products in the state and issuing penalties – in its efforts to prioritize education and outreach efforts to help vendors identify and remove products from shelves and to take necessary enforcement actions when/where appropriate. PCPC, along with a wide group of stakeholders, supported legislation in California, Colorado and Maryland to prohibit the use of mercury in all cosmetics and personal care products.

“PCPC member companies invest substantial resources to ensure the safety and quality of their products and that those products meet federal and state safety and quality requirements.”

According to the CNN report, the products found in the woman's home had mercury levels ranging from 4590 to 18,000ppm.

The toxicologist added that there are likely to be many more people out there who are being exposed to toxic levels of mercury and are not showing symptoms, or at least not yet.

Following the referral, Batdorff and the MPCA visited the woman's house twice, about a year apart. On the first visit she showed the team skin whitening products from abroad but said she was no longer using them. The agency found the amount of mercury in two of those products to be several thousand times higher than the permitted levels of 1ppm in cosmetics and urine tests revealed high levels of mercury in her body (23mcg/liter). However, mercury was not noted as an ingredient on the products, according to the team. A second home visit in 2022 found that two new beauty products the woman had bought at a local market. One was not labelled as skin whitening but is known to be used for whitening. It also contained high levels of mercury. The products found in her home were empty from use, but the MPCA team tested new unopened versions of the same product, finding extremely high levels of mercury of 11,000 and 18,000ppm.

In 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to consumers regarding health implications of mercury in cosmetics.

“There are limited outlets for availability, and we have no reason or evidence to believe there would be any difference in the products,” said John Gilkeson, toxics reduction specialist at the MPCA, who tested the woman's home and has conducted three visits to the homes of people using skin whitening creams in recent years.

New urine tests confirmed that the mercury level in her body had risen to 46.6 micrograms/liter. That’s more than nine times the level considered normal (5 micrograms/liter). Certain areas in her home contained elevated levels of mercury, putting her family at risk.

Background mercury levels below 200 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m³) are not considered a concern, Gilkeson explained. But the children's bedrooms recorded levels of up to 400 ng/m³ and their towels read up to 600 mg/m³, according to the case report.

Levels of up to 300 mg/m³ were found in the washing machine, where mercury likely accumulated as clothes worn by the mother were laundered, in turn contaminating other clothing and materials that go into the machine.

Urine tests on one of her children found that they now had elevated levels of mercury in their body, albeit much lower than their mother at 6.88 micrograms/liter.

Experts note that there are several effective skin lightening ingredients that don't cause health problems when used correctly. They include AHAs, ascorbic acid and kojic acid. Hydroquinone is also an effective skin lightener, but it should be used under a physician's supervision.