On January 1st, cosmetic companies are gonna have to scrambe if they want to do business in Minnesota, and their products contain mercury. Mercury can be very harmful when ingested, and many opponents of the use of the substance at all say that it’s application on the skin and outer body may also be detrimental to the health, because we all know that products and nutrients can penetrate our skin subcutaneously and can enter the blood stream that way.
Look at the debate over aluminum in deodorant – same concept, and that’s even more serious because you apply deodorant in one of the places where your lymph nodes are concentrated most heavily, your underarms.
The state (which is a surprising one to be the first for this in my opinion), is going to the first state to ban the addition of the substance to cosmetics, and will set a precedent for perhaps other states to follow, as having a higher standard in cosmetics than even the federal government does. FYI, the federal government does currently allow trace amounts of mercury in cosmetics to enter the market.
And they won’t just face embarrassment if they are found to have mercury in their cosmetics that are sold in the state either. Oh no, they will also be slapped with a fine for each infringement on the new law to be enacted next year. The thing is, a customer pretty much has to complain to bring it to the attention of enforcement, and I’m not sure how that would be apparent to a customer, other than if they had a chemical tester, or it was clearly labeled that way.
This ban is in an effort to completely wipe the substance out of products that are used for human consumption (external and internal), as mercury has been known to cause neurological damage, even if ingested in small amounts. Hopefully this ban will pass nationally so our cosmetics and makeup products can be a little safer and healthier for the long term.
