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)

据《新京报》报道，数家环保组织周二公布的调查显示，市场上常见的美白祛斑化妆品中有23%的汞含量超标。

化妆品汞含量的国家标准是要低于百万分之一，但存在问题的化妆品样品的汞含量居然高达该标准的18到44000倍。

环保组织志愿者在中国的10座城市随机购买了477件美白祛斑产品，并使用X射线荧光分析仪来检测其中的重金属。

所选样品的价格和销售渠道各不相同，有的来自网店，有的来自实体店，但是很多问题产品来自批发市场。

达尔问自然求知社研究员王秋霞介绍说：“112件问题产品均没有在产品标识上标明重金属含量，这是违法的。”

世界卫生组织称，化妆品中的汞可以使人的肾脏受损，并引起抑郁、焦虑、神经错乱、免疫力下降等多种疾病。

北京朝阳医院职业病与中毒医学科科主任郝凤桐说，近年来，他们接诊的汞中毒女性越来越多，并建议消费者从正规商铺购买符合标准的化妆品。