Michael Bender, Mercury Policy Project and Zero Mercury Working Group, mercurypolicy@aol.com
Cindy Carr, Sierra Club, cindy.carr@sierraclub.org
BRUSSELS -- Despite being banned, skin lighteners with illegal levels of mercury are still being sold by some of the world’s biggest online retailers to unsuspecting consumers, according to a new Zero Mercury Working Group (ZMWG) report released today. More than 100 products purchased from sites including eBay and Amazon tested positive for mercury levels well above the one part per million (ppm) limit mandated by the global UN Minamata Convention and US safeguards for cosmetics. Of those products, seven contained between 2.8 to 12,418 ppm of mercury and were easily purchased from the US on eBay and delivered to a US address.
The Sierra Club and the Mercury Policy Project are joining the ZMWG in calling for world governments to shut down the production and sale of these toxic and racist skin creams.
“Despite being illegal, our findings show the same high mercury skin lighteners continued to be offered for sale on the internet,” said Michael Bender, Mercury Policy Project Director and ZMWG Co-coordinator. “What’s illegal domestically should be illegal online. Ecommerce must be held to the same standards.”
Between 2017 and 2022, ZMWG conducted three separate investigations, each time confirming continued global access to illegal, high mercury skin lightening products. Today’s study shows that little progress has been made to stop online retail sales of mercury-based products since the most recent study in 2019. While this year’s study did not find products available on Amazon in the US, international partners were able to purchase mercury-based lighteners on Amazon in India and Antigua & Barbuda.
“Time and again, the most toxic beauty products on the market are sold to Black and Brown people to uphold racist beauty norms,” said Sonya Lunder, the Sierra Club’s Senior Toxics Advisor. “It is unacceptable that deadly mercury-based skin products are still available for purchase online.”
It is well-documented that long-term use of mercury-based skin products can cause skin damage, neurological damage, and a myriad of other harmful side effects to unsuspecting consumers, many of whom tend to apply the products daily and sometimes to large areas of the body. Even more concerning is the fact that for consumers who use these products during their pregnancy, mercury poses enormous risks to the developing fetus, including lasting damage to the brain and nervous system.
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Read the new report here.
Read the Sierra Club’s blog on the new report here.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.