Sellers of ‘toxic’ facial creams get ‘Lason Award’

A TOXICS watchdog has upped the ante on safe cosmetics advocacy by taking to task dealers of illegal skin whitening creams containing huge quantities of mercury, an extremely toxic chemical.

In its pre-Valentine press statement, the EcoWaste Coalition took the bold step of identifying vendors of mercury-tainted facial creams and giving them the “Lason Award” for selling the contraband goods that exceeded the government regulatory limit of one part per million (ppm) for mercury in cosmetics.

“We have taken this step of naming the erring vendors to push them to have a heart and stop the illegal trade of poison cosmetics,” said Aileen Lucero, Safe Cosmetics Campaigner, EcoWaste Coalition.

“We urge our cosmetics regulators to apply the full force of the law and hold the culprits accountable,” she stated.

“Through our action, we also hope to raise consumer awareness and vigilance about the hazards of mercury exposure from dirtied skin whitening creams,” said Aileen Lucero, Safe Cosmetics Campaigner, EcoWaste Coalition.

The group conducted its latest round of test buys of skin whitening products on January 28-February 1 in the cities of Makati, Manila and Quezon and had them screened for mercury using the X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyzer on February 1.

Report from EcoWaste Coalition