About 23 percent of the whitening and freckle-reducing cosmetic products consumers can easily find on the market contain excessive mercury, a survey by several environmental protection organizations showed on Tuesday, the Beijing News reported.

The national standard for mercury content in cosmetics is below 1 part per million. But the mercury content found in the problematic sample products exceeded standards by 18 to 44,000 times.

Volunteers from environmental protection organizations randomly selected 477 whitening and freckle-reducing products in 10 cities across China and used X-ray fluorescenece to test the heavy metals in them.

Selected samples varied in price and sales channels, from online to offline stores. But many of the problematic products were bought in wholesale markets.

"None of the 112 problematic products have cited the content of heavy metals in their trade description, which is against the law," said Wang Qiuxia, a researcher from Daerwen Environmental Institute.

According to the World Health Organization, the presence of mercury in cosmetics can lead to kidney damage, depression, anxiety, mental disorders, a deteriorated immune system and several other disorders.

Hao Fengtong, a chief physician of Occupational Diseases and Poisoning Medicine Department at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, said that the amount of female patients suffering from mercury poisoning his department receives, has been rising over recent years. Hao also suggested that consumers buy qualified brand cosmetics in official stores.

(China.org.cn April 12, 2012)

據《新京報》報道，數家環保組織周二公布的調查顯示，市場上常見的美白祛斑化妝品中有23%的汞含量超標。

化妝品汞含量的國家標準是要低于百萬分之一，但存在問題的化妝品樣品的汞含量居然高達該標準的18到44000倍。

環保組織志愿者在中國的10座城市隨機購買了477件美白祛斑產品，并使用X射線熒光分析儀來檢測其中的重金屬。

所選樣品的價格和銷售渠道各不相同，有的來自網店，有的來自實體店，但是很多問題產品來自批發市場。

達爾問自然求知社研究員王秋霞介紹說：“112件問題產品均沒有在產品標識上標明重金屬含量，這是違法的。”

世界衛生組織稱，化妝品中的汞可以使人的腎臟受損，并引起抑郁、焦慮、神經錯亂、免疫力下降等多種疾病。

北京朝陽醫院職業病與中毒醫學科科主任郝鳳桐說，近年來，他們接診的汞中毒女性越來越多，并建議消費者從正規商鋪購買符合標準的化妝品。