Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.
Center for Biostatistics, Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States.
Environ Res. 2019 Mar;170:187-193. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2018.12.029. Epub 2018 Dec 15.
There is an urgent need to address the safety problems caused by the use of skin lightening cosmetics. Evidence suggests that some of them may contain heavy metals.
We conducted a systematic review of global legal regulations regarding the permissible level of mercury, lead, arsenic, and cadmium in cosmetic products, with particular emphasis on skin lightening preparations.
The systematic search of documents was a two-stage process. First, official websites of 17 regional organizations and subsequently regulations for countries with a population over 100 million were searched.
Fifteen legislative acts, encompassing more than 67·2% of the global population were reviewed. Regulations were identified for 44/59 high income countries, 16/55 upper middle income countries, 9/45 lower income countries, 0/34 low income countries. The median adult literacy rate was 91·4% and 64·2% in countries with and without regulations, respectively. The use of mercury, lead, arsenic, and cadmium has been banned in 67, 67, 65, and 65 out of 69 countries, respectively.
While regulations exist in most of the high income countries, in low income countries there is a lack of similar standards. In most countries for which these legal regulations have been identified, restrictions on the permissible level of heavy metals are strict. There is a need for enforcement of existing rules, and rigorous assessment of the effectiveness of these regulations.
解决因使用美白化妆品而产生的安全问题已迫在眉睫。有证据表明，其中一些产品可能含有重金属。
我们对全球关于化妆品中汞、铅、砷和镉允许含量的法律规定进行了系统评价，重点关注美白制剂。
系统文献检索分两个阶段进行。首先，检索了 17 个区域组织的官方网站，随后检索了人口超过 1 亿的国家的法规。
共审查了 15 项立法法案，涵盖了全球超过 67.2%的人口。在 44/59 个高收入国家、16/55 个中上收入国家、9/45 个低收入国家和 0/34 个低收入国家中均制定了相关法规。有法规和无法规国家的成年人平均识字率分别为 91.4%和 64.2%。在 69 个国家中，有 67 个国家禁止使用汞、67 个国家禁止使用铅、65 个国家禁止使用砷、65 个国家禁止使用镉。
虽然大多数高收入国家都有相关法规，但在低收入国家却缺乏类似的标准。在大多数确定了这些法律规定的国家中，对重金属允许含量的限制非常严格。有必要执行现有的规则，并严格评估这些法规的有效性。
