Medical officials find mercury in lightening cream

Health investigators are starting to go undercover in some San Francisco Bay Area ethnic communities to root out foreign-made skin lighteners laced with mercury.

The unlabeled jars of cream are typically used to lighten skin or fade freckles, but can have severe health effects.

California health officials became alarmed when a 39-year-old Mexican-American woman in Alameda County was diagnosed with mercury poisoning, giving her headaches, numbness,
depression and forgetfulness.
  

Scouring her home for the likely culprit, they determined that an illegal skin-lightening cream smuggled in from Mexico was to blame.

The investigators are working with health and beauty workers in the immigrant communities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose to hunt for the skin creams in shops and at swap meets, while encouraging families to dispose of the products safely.

The Minnesota Department of Health warned residents last year that skin lightening products being sold in African, Asian, Latino and Middle Eastern communities in the Twin Cities contained dangerous levels of mercury.

The Environmental Protection Agency has warned about the presence of the heavy metal in creams sold in the Chicago area.

The CDC says inorganic mercury can be ingested, inhaled or absorbed through the skin; then excreted in urine, sweat and breast milk.

The half-life of inorganic mercury is one to two months, so mercury levels can increase with repeated application of the creams.