Mercury content in low cost skin lightening cream products.

Skin lightening creams were randomly collected from local markets in Sultanate of Oman for analysis of mercury (II) content. All the products collected were of low cost imported materials from different countries. Cream samples were digested in nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide at elevated temperature using a microwave digester. The mercury content was measured using Flow Injection Atomic Spectroscopy (FIAS)-Mercury Hydride System. Out of forty cream samples analyzed, about one fourth of the samples contained higher levels of mercury which is more than the maximum mercury content of 1 microg/g permitted by the Food and Drug Administration regulation. The mercury level in the analyzed samples is found to be in the range from 0.02 to 25.7 microg/g. Among the analyzed skin lightening cream samples half of the materials did not have any detectable mercury content.