There could be a dark side to skin-lightening creams often found in stores that cater to ethnic communities. Starting next week, California health officials will collect and test a sampling of skin-lightening products in the Bay Area for possible mercury contamination. Health officials launched the investigation in response to a spate of mercury poisoning cases linked to the tainted face creams that are made outside the United States.
In some of California’s top strawberry-growing counties, levels of the banned pesticide methyl bromide remain nearly as high as they were a decade ago, despite a mandated phaseout, according to an analysis by New America Media. The fumigant was supposed to have been phased out completely by 2005, under a global pact to halt the thinning of the earth’s protective ozone layer. But in 2009, the latest year for which data is available, more than 5 million pounds of the pesticide were still in use, down just 50 percent from 2000.