Remember how at one point there were some pictures of cosmetic products that are bad for your skin because they contain all sorts of weird chemicals? Well, that turned out to be speculative and not exactly true. The Health Ministry however, have identified three cosmetic products that turn out to contain scheduled poison, namely mercury, which can be harmful to our health.

Everyone’s favourite guy in Malaysia right now, Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement released yesterday that Glow Skin White-Brightening Cream, Glow Skin White-Sun Care and Rzac Beauty Creme 2 all contain mercury and will no longer be on sale in Malaysia.

“Mercury is prohibited in cosmetics products because it can be harmful to health. It can be absorbed into the body and cause damage to the kidneys and nervous system.

“The substance can also disrupt brain development of young or unborn children and causes rashes, irritation and other changes to the skin,” he said. As you would expect, sellers and distributors of these products will have to pull these products from sale immediately.

The continued sale and distribution of these products violates the Control Of Drugs And Cosmetics Regulations 1984 and anyone found violating this regulation could be fined not more than RM25,000 or face a maximum of three years imprisonment, or both.

Companies on the other hand, face a heftier fine of up to RM50,000 the first time and RM100,000 for subsequent offences.

To those of you out there who swear by the aforementioned Glow products, you might want to stop using them and head on over to your nearest doctor, especially if you’ve been experiencing any discomfort or adverse effects.

There’s actually an app you can download where you can check the notification status of a cosmetic product on the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA)’s official website, so if you’re worried about the products you’re using at home, best cross check on it’s status!

Source: NST