Five Mercury-Added Cosmetics from Thailand Sold Online in the Philippines
Urgent Letter to FDA Thailand from EcoWaste Coalition, EARTH and IPEN-SEA
27 January 2025
Dr. Paisarn Dunkum
Secretary-General
Mrs. Supawadee Teerawatsakul
Director, Bureau of Cosmetics and Hazardous Substances Control
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Thailand
Ministry of Public Health
Dear Friends,
Subject: Five Mercury-Added Cosmetics from Thailand Sold Online in the Philippines
Greetings from the EcoWaste Coalition-Philippines, Ecological Alert and Recovery- Thailand (EARTH), and the International Pollutants Elimination Network – Southeast and East Asia (IPEN-SEA). We are public interest organizations campaigning to prevent and reduce human exposure to toxic chemical pollution. One of our advocacies is to promote compliance to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which counts on the Philippines and Thailand among the parties to this treaty.
We write to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Royal Thai Government about the unlawful sale in online shopping platforms Lazada and Shopee of the following skin lightening cosmetics from Thailand. Based on the X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) screening conducted by the EcoWaste Coalition, these products are adulterated with mercury at levels exceeding the one part per million (ppm) limit under the ASEAN Cosmetic Directive, and the “Notification of the Ministry of Public Health Prescribing the Name of any Substance Prohibited for Use as an Ingredient in Cosmetic Production (No. 7) B.E. 2565 (2022).”
| Product Name | Manufacturer, | Mercury Content as per XRF Screening | Remarks |
| Aura White Night Cream Intensive Whitening Facial Cream | (info in Thai) | 584 ppm | Reported by EcoWaste Coalition to FDA Philippines on 20 January 2025 |
| Meyyong Ra (Seaweed) Extra Whitening & Facelift | (info in Thai) | 2,447 ppm | Reported by EcoWaste Coalition to FDA Philippines on 20 January 2025 |
| Pumepine Total White Underarm Cream | (info in Thai) | 2,248 ppm | Reported by EcoWaste Coalition to FDA Philippines on 8 January 2025 |
| Q-nic Care Whitening Underarm Cream | (info in Thai) | 6,109 ppm | FDA-issued advisory: |
| Q-nic Care Whitening Night Cream | (info in Thai) | 4,113 ppm | FDA-issued advisory: |
Relevant photos are attached for your kind reference.
In the interest of protecting consumers against the adverse impacts of using cosmetics adulterated with mercury, we appeal to the FDA Thailand to conduct a crackdown on the manufacturers, exporters, distributors and retailers, including online sellers, of cosmetics with mercury content. Law enforcement action at all levels is urgently required to put the global ban on mercury cosmetics into practice.
For the information of the public, including the citizens of other ASEAN member states, we urge FDA Thailand to publish an updated list of banned mercury cosmetics and to make use of the ASEAN Post-Marketing Alert System (PMAS) platform to spread the necessary information to guide regulators, businesses and consumers on which products not to trade, sell and/or use.
The EcoWaste Coalition, EARTH and IPEN-SEA would like to convey our profound appreciation for your immediate action to protect human health and the environment against mercury contamination.
Thank you very much for your kind attention, and warmest regards.
Very sincerely yours,
Aileen Lucero
National Coordinator, EcoWaste Coalition
Penchom Saetang
Executive Director, EARTH
Chinkie Peliño-Golle
Regional Coordinator, IPEN-SEA
