An environmental watchdog warned the public against buying a skin whitening product which reportedly contains high level of mercury.
The EcoWaste Coalition alerted the public against the mercury-laden Temulawak New Day & Night Beauty Whitening Cream, following the dissemination of the ASEAN Post-Marketing Alert System (PMAS) report by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“The product has been tested by the Department of Pharmaceutical Services, Ministry of Health, Brunei Darussalam as part of their post-marketing surveillance activities, and the result of laboratory analysis shows that the product is not compliant with the technical standards set forth by the ASEAN Cosmetic Directive (ACD),” according to the advisory.
The group obtained the skin whitening set from a specialty store in Quiapo, Manila, that sells food and health products imported from Indonesia and Malaysia.
The product contains more than 1,000 parts per million (ppm) of mercury, which is way above the allowable limit of of 1 ppm, said Thony Dizon, Chemical Safety Campaigner of the group. (Analou De Vera)
