X-ray fluorescence detects mercury in skincare products

Data presented at the 248th National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society demonstrate total reflection X-ray fluorescence can detect mercury in skincare products faster than inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, without sacrificing accuracy.

Dangerously high levels of mercury have been found in skin-lightening creams often imported from places like Asia, Central America, the Middle East and Africa, according to researchers.

“In the U.S., the limit on mercury in products is 1 part per million,” Gordon Vrdoljak, PhD, of the California Department of Public Health, said in a press release. “In some of these creams, we’ve been finding levels as high as 210,000 parts per million — really substantial amounts of mercury. If people are using the product quite regularly, their hands will exude it, it will get in their food, on their countertops, on the sheets their kids sleep on.”

Vrdoljak and colleagues’ research details various X-ray fluorescence techniques and compares the efficacy of these techniques with the widely accepted inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method.

“Testing one product using the old technique could take days,” he said in the press release. “Using the new instrument, I can run through 20 or 30 samples in a day quite easily. By identifying those products that contain mercury, we can direct people to remove them and clean up their households.”

Unfortunately, however, that intervention usually takes place after patients present to a physician with tremors, headaches or other symptoms.

During a press conference, Vrdoljak said these creams are more commonly used by people from certain parts of the world. He and colleagues have been going to ethnic markets to find products on local shelves and test them using the portable X-ray fluorescence.

“We can go out there and do target screening in ethnic markets — Chinese, Asian, Latino, Philippino, people from India, Pakistan — and pull stuff off the shelves, test them and find out if there is anything of concern.”

In addition, Vrdoljak and colleagues distribute health warnings in a variety of languages to help spread the word among these communities, and they encourage people to see a dermatologist to determine a safe skincare product to fit their needs.

Reference: Vrdoljak G. Abstract #F-56. Presented at: 248th National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society. Aug. 10-14, 2014; San Francisco, Calif.

Disclosure: Vrdoljak has no relevant financial disclosures.