NON-GOVERNMENT organization EcoWaste Coalition has called for stronger efforts against cosmetics with mercury ingredients after it found another such skincare product being sold in the local market.
“The unceasing trade of cosmetics with hidden mercury ingredients points to the need to strengthen compliance and enforcement strategies, including strict customs controls,” EcoWaste Coalition National Coordinator Aileen A. Lucero said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Aside from sustained regulatory actions, an active campaign promoting acceptance of our brown skin is very much needed to encourage Filipinos not to use chemical whiteners to alter our natural skin tone and to resist colorism,” she added.
The group issued the statement after it found Feique Herbal Extract Whitening Anti-Freckle Set made in Guangzhou City, China, being sold offline and online. The group first discovered the cosmetic product in 2014.
“This dangerous product can also be obtained from local and China-based online sellers,” she added.
The day and night creams of the product contained mercury measured at 2,955 and 4,060 parts per million (ppm), respectively.
Under the ASEAN Cosmetic Directive, the use of mercury in cosmetic products such as skin lightening cosmetics is prohibited. The directive also sets a trace amount limit of one ppm for mercury as a contaminant in cosmetics.
“An examination of the Feique product label shows that it will expire on Dec. 12, 2026, indicating that it was manufactured after the 2020 phase-out deadline for such mercury-added cosmetics under the Minamata Convention on Mercury,” Ms. Lucero said. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave