In order to check the level of contamination of the facial skin whitening products with mercury in the Thai market, and in order to raise the awareness among consumers of cosmetics on the risk of mercury, and the importance of removing mercury from these products, one of the Thai environmental associations called ‘’EARTH’’ realized an awareness campaign and took samples of cosmetics to be tested. The Results of the analysis indicated that 20% of the total facial skins whitening products are contaminated by mercury. What is surprising, that most of these products, which exist freely in the markets, are listed on the list of dangerous products, adopted by the Thai government, and this indicates that the state has not the ability to implement the legislation. After this information was published in the press, the government is expected to take preventive measures to protect consumers from the exposure to toxic mercury. Similar studies conducted in the Philippines, Bangladesh and India indicates the presence of mercury in many cosmetic products.
Lebanon is an importing country for materials, powders and ointments cosmetics, including facial skin whitening products from abroad, especially from East Asian countries. Unfortunately, we don’t have regulations to classify the hazardous products in this category, and we don’t have quality standards to organize this group of products like: ointments, powders and lip sticks and others.
