BSTI finds harmful mercury in 17 brands of fairness cream

Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) found dangerous levels of mercury in 17 brands of fairness cream sold in the country’s market.
During laboratory test, it has also found excessive amounts of hydroquinone that contains these brands of creams of which 14 brands are Pakistani.
Excess mercury and hydroquinone are harmful for human bodies; BSTI said adding that long-term use of these creams can cause various skin diseases.
The BSTI issued a notification on Monday and said that they have collected and tested the samples of different brands of color lightening creams from the open markets.
 It has found these fairness creams contain mercury and hydroquinone in harmful levels for human health. Of the 17 brands identified as harmful after laboratory test. Of them, 14 are from Pakistan, one each from China and Bangladesh and the other is unnamed.
According to the relevant Bangladesh standards for skin creams, the maximum acceptable level of mercury is 1 ppm and the maximum acceptable level of hydroquinone is 5 ppm. But most of the creams of the 17 brands mentioned had mercury levels between 40 and 222 ppm, the BSTI notification said adding that two other creams were found to contain 8 ppm and 30 ppm of hydroquinone.
The BSTI laboratory test found the presence of 102.92 ppm mercury in Gouri brand cream of Pakistan Gouri Cosmetics (Pvt.) Ltd., 209 ppm in S&J Marketing brand cream, 216 ppm in QC International cream, 133 ppm in Creative Cosmetics Dew brand cream, 124 ppm in Golden Pearl Cosmetics cream and 183 ppm in Punia Brothers cream.
Apart from this, the presence of mercury level 222 ppm was found in Noor Gold Cosmetics of Pakistan and 201 ppm of White Pearl Cosmetics of Pakistan. While, the level of hydroquinone in the cream of Pakistan’s Anija Cosmetics was found 30 ppm and 8 ppm in the cream of Gold Cosmetics of Bangladesh.
Earlier in March 2020, BSTI had notified most of these brand’s creams as harmful.
 Despite campaigning against these brands available in the market, but still such harmful creams of color lightening are regularly sold in the open markets.
The BSTI again notified and urge the people not to use such harmful creams.
The BSTI has ordered to stop the selling and distribution of these harmful fairness creams immediately containing excess mercury in the interest of the public health.
It has also warned that legal action will be taken against importers, suppliers and sellers (including online sellers).
The BSTI has also warned the buyers to refrain from using these harmful creams which are not approved by the BSTI.