March 9, 2022
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.