Mercury toxicity associated with a beauty lotion, New Mexico

Sir—In May 1996, the New Mexico Department of Health reported one case of mercury poisoning as- sociated with the use of a beauty lotion produced in Mexico. The lotion, marketed as 'Crema de Belleza', listed calomel as an ingredient without indicating its concentration. Laboratory testing by the National Pub- lic Health Laboratory in Tamaulipas, Mexico, showed that the lotion contained 6-10% mercury by weight.1 We performed a cross-sectional study at three Women, Infant and Children's (WIC) clinics in Dona Ana County, New Mexico. Our goals were to determine the prevalence of lotion use in selected New Mexico-Mexico border communities, to determine whether lotion users had ex- cessive amounts of mercury in their urine, and to docu- ment reported adverse health effects associated with lotion use. The clinics were chosen because of their loca- tion near the US-Mexico border and the large number of patients typically seen at each clinic. Using a brief prescreening questionnaire, we interviewed all 185 women who visited the three WIC clinics over a 3-day period to identify users of the lotion. Using a structured questionnaire, we interviewed the five women who identified themselves as current users of the lotion and selected a convenience sample of 20 women who identified themselves as non-users in order to obtain comparison data. Current users were arbitrarily defined as people who had applied the lotion to their skin within the previous year. All others were defined as non-users. The questionnaire requested demographic informa- tion, as well as information about the duration and fre- quency of lotion use, other potential sources of mercury exposure and symptoms associated with mercury toxicity.2 We collected spot urine samples from 23 of the 25 participants. Urine samples were analysed for total mercury and creatinine. The 25 study participants ranged in age from 18 to 56 years, with a median age of 31 years for users and 29.5 years for non-users. All participants were female; all users and 95% of non-users were of Hispanic origin. All users purchased the lotion from pharmacies in Mexico. The median duration of lotion use was 7 weeks, and the median frequency of use was seven times per week. Users most often applied the lotion to their face. We estimated the prevalence of lotion use among women attending the WIC clinics to be 2.7%. Urine mercury levels for beauty lotion users