HUMAN HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT OF SOME HEAVY METALS IN COSMETIC PRODUCTS (A CASE STUDY OF HUMAN HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT OF SOME HEAVY METALS IN COSMETIC PRODUCTS)

ABSTRACT Many cosmetic products contain heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, mercury, cobalt, and nickel as ingredients or impurities. Recent research has reported that these metals can easily cause many types of skin problems. The investigated fairness creams varied in their metal concentrations, and the estimated amounts of lead and cadmium were lower than the respective maximum allowable concentration (MAC), according to the WHO/EU standard. The concentrations of lead and cadmium are presented in Table 1. The level of lead in the samples used ranged from 0.001±0.00 to 0.0827±0.00. The lowest value of lead was obtained in sample A while the highest value was obtained in sample C. Two of the fairness creams used have cadmium below the detection level while the highest value (0.0347±0.00) and the lowest value (0.0017±0.00) were obtained in sample F and sample C, respectively. All the values obtained are below the WHO allowable concentration of lead and cadmium in cosmetics. This study recommends continuous monitoring of this field including other items of cosmetics and the agencies that control the safety of cosmetic products will have to work hard to ensure safety of the consumers of these products. None of the metals were found to be considered as potential health hazards for humans.