Determination of mercury level in skin whitening creams

Abstract

This study included the determination of mercury level in twelve samples of skin whitening cream available in local market in Baghdad by atomic absorption spectrophotometer ,all the samples analyzed was contained a detectable amount of mercury. The lowest concentration of mercury in the sample C (Top Shirley) was 0.482 μg/g, and the higher concentration was 29.54 μg/g in the sample J (Norseen) .It was also noted that the samples H (whitening speckle removing day cream) and K (whitening speckle removing night cream) did not mention in the label significance the name of the country of origin and date of the validity of the product.