Sold by online stores in India, 'dark truth' of made in Pakistan skin whitening creams

By A Representative
Dangerously high levels of mercury, a heavy metal and neurotoxin, were found in imported skin whitening creams being sold in Indian markets, Toxics Link, a well-known environmental research and advocacy non-profit, has said in its latest report “Dark truth of skin whitening creams: Presence of Mercury in skin whitening creams”.
Based in Delhi, Toxics Link is part of the global alliance of Zero mercury Working Group (ZMWG) and claims to be involved in the mercury policy project. ZMWG is an international coalition of more than 110 public interest environmental and health non-governmental organizations from over 55 countries from around the world formed in 2005 by the European Environmental Bureau and the Mercury Policy Project.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), mercury is hazardous to health and has the potential to cause damage to the central nervous system, the gastrointestinal system and the kidneys. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has also shown concern over the fact that mercury bio-accumulates in the body tissue and its long-term exposure can have impact to the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs and immune system particularly, in unborn children and babies
The NGO research team enlisted 15 skin whitening creams of different brands manufactured in India, Pakistan and Philippines. The samples were collected from different cities of India, Mumbai, Vijayawada, Delhi and Trivandrum, and tested in the Shriram Institute for Industrial Research, New Delhi, using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) by a standardized method.
The study detected mercury in six out of 15 samples. Five samples had alarming levels of mercury ranging from 4,000 to 14,000 ppm. Only one out of six samples had mercury concentration below 1 ppm, i.e., 0.3 ppm. The samples were purchased from Gaffer market in Delhi, Vashi in Navi Mumbai and Tarapet Market in Vijayawada.
The study also revealed that all the six samples containing mercury were manufactured in Pakistan, according to the labels in the packaging. Moreover, the test results revealed that all the samples manufactured in India had mercury below detectable limits.
In India, there is a stringent regulation, under the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 2020, to prevent mercury from being added to cosmetics. Manufacturing and import of cosmetics containing mercury compounds are completely prohibited; but unintentional mercury is allowed up to 1 ppm. However, the study regretted, the mercury-containing products are still available in the Indian market. India has also ratified the Minamata convention on Mercury which restricts mercury use in cosmetics to 1 ppm.
Said the study, it is disturbing that the mercury concentrations in some of the imported samples were found to be as high as 1,000 times more than the current permissible limit of 1 ppm. Significantly, a previous study by Toxics Link in 2019 had also reported high mercury concentrations in same brands, it added.

The 6 samples in which mercury was reported were imported creams from Pakistan, available in online portals like Amazon and Flipkart

The 2019 samples were purchased from the online portals Amazon and Flipkart. The study also found that, apart from these brands, other high mercury containing brands manufactured in the countries like China, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia were also found to be available in India through these online portals.
Thus, it is clear that the mercury-laden creams are easily available in the country and are being sold both in offline shops and on online portals despite the strict regulations in place to contain mercury in cosmetics, the study said.
“Availability of highly toxic and non-compliant products in shops and on online portals are serious breach of the national rules and need to be acted upon immediately by the regulators” said Satish Sinha, Associate Director, Toxics Link.
The use of these products could result in severe health risks. Therefore, there is an urgent need for periodic monitoring of imported skin whitening creams by the regulatory authorities, to safeguard the health of the consumers. “A proper surveillance system needs to be in place to prevent high mercury-containing toxic skin whitening creams to be imported to India.” said Piyush Mohapatra, senior programme coordinator, Toxics Link.

Key findings

Mercury was reported in six out of fifteen skin whitening cream samples purchased from Mumbai, Delhi, Trivandrum, and Vijayawa
Five samples were found to contain very high mercury concentrations (4000 to 14000 ppm)
One sample had a mercury concentration of 0.3 ppm, i.e., below the permissible limit of 1 ppm
All the six samples in which mercury was reported were imported creams from Pakistan and are also available in online portals like Amazon and Flipkart
All the Indian manufactured brands are within the safe limit of 1 ppm of mercury.

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Counterview

Search This Blog