
We are justly proud of our skin’s permeability barrier, which does such an admirable job of holding our water in – keeping our interior moist as we move about in a dry world. This same barrier also protects us from absorbing many substances with which we come into contact – to the point that we often don’t think about it when we put various lotions and creams on our skin.
Yet sometimes our skin barrier can fail to protect us from poisons in our environment.
A recent health newsletter told an alarming story of a California woman who became comatose after using a skin moisturizer that had been adulterated with mercury. She was using the cream in an effort to lighten her skin color. Her product originated in Mexico, and was a common, off the shelf moisturizer which had been adulterated with methylmercury – (the metal used in thermometers). Another common mercury adulterant in skin lightening creams is ‘calomel’ (mercury chloride). The problem, of course, is that mercury, even at low blood concentrations, is highly toxic, and can cause a host of neurological abnormalities.
[Read more…] about Hazards Of Our Porous Skin: Why Skin-Lightening Creams Can Be Toxic