TWO environmental health organizations jointly urged the Office of Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte to intervene to stop the illegal trade in contraband mercury-laced skin-lightening products, which are banned globally.
In a letter e-mailed to Mayor Duterte, Davao City-based Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability (IDIS) and Quezon City-based EcoWaste Coalition alerted the authorities about the illicit sale of skin lighteners flagged by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) due to mercury contamination and/or lack of market authorization.
Based on the monitoring conducted by the EcoWaste Coalition, three stores located in Uyanguren, Davao City’s popular bargain shopping hub, were found selling the following FDA-flagged skin-lightening products made in Pakistan, Thailand, and China:
–Goree Beauty Cream with Lycopene
–Goree Day & Night Beauty Cream
–Goree 24K Gold Beauty Cream
–88 Total White Underarm Cream
–S’Zitang (2 variants)
–Jiaoli (2 variants)
Goree products, in particular, are notorious for their extremely high mercury content. For example, samples of Goree Beauty Cream with Lycopene and Goree Day & Night Beauty Cream sent by the EcoWaste Coalition and IDIS to South Korea in 2022 for mercury analysis were found to contain 58,400 ppm and 46,900 ppm of mercury, respectively. The analysis was conducted by the Wonjin Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health (WIOEH).
Health experts have repeatedly warned that mercury is hazardous to human health. The use of this toxic chemical as an ingredient in cosmetic product formulations is banned under the ASEAN Cosmetic Directive, as well as in the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which Mayor Baste’s father, former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, ratified in 2020.
The Minamata Convention, among other provisions, prohibits the manufacture, import, and export of mercury-added cosmetics, including skin-lightening creams and soaps, to protect public health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury exposure and pollution.
Mercury in skin-lightening cosmetics is released during routine use, with dermal absorption and inhalation as common routes of exposure. It can cause skin discoloration, rashes and scarring, and reduce skin’s resistance to bacterial and fungal infections. Repeated applications can harm the kidneys, the brain, and the central nervous system.
Even non-users, children in particular, can be exposed and harmed through inhalation of mercury vapors and contact with clothes, towels, and bedding contaminated with mercury.
Furthermore, as users wash these adulterated cosmetics off, mercury enters the wastewater, polluting water bodies and contaminating the marine environment and food supply.
To protect public health and the environment, IDIS and the EcoWaste Coalition requested the city authorities to conduct random store inspections and confiscate violative products for environmentally sound storage and disposal.
“We further urge your office to consider other measures to effectively stop the sale of dangerous cosmetics with mercury in Davao City, including issuing an Executive Order or enacting a City Ordinance,” the groups suggested.
The groups also reminded users of skin-lightening products, especially women, that “the skin color you’re born with is not a flaw to be corrected,” emphasizing “women do not need a lighter skin complexion to be seen and heard as their brilliance, creativity, courage, and kindness already make them whole.”
