Abstract:

With the gradual improvement of people’s living standards, cosmetics have come into the life. The lead and mercury contained in cosmetics have a whiting effect on skin. However, an excess can cause great harm to people’s health. So, there are relevant laws and regulations at home and abroad that strictly limit the content of lead and mercury in cosmetics. Moreover, the health issues caused by excessive heavy metal elements such as lead and mercury in cosmetics have drawn a widespread public attention, and the detection methods have been constantly updated. Present situation and progress of research on detecting lead and mercury in cosmetics are summarized, including not only conventional methods, such as atomic absorption spectroscopy, atomic fluorescence spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and electrochemical analysis, but also rapid detection methods, as of mercury analyzer, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, and laser induction spectroscopy. However, it is important to figure out which detection technology is the best way to test the excessive lead and mercury content in cosmetics. Actually, whether factory detection or sales process detection, it is necessary to choose an efficient, fast and low-cost detection methods for lead and mercury element in cosmetics. Based on the paper, in contrast to the differences of sensitivity and accuracy between various methods, it is found that electrochemical analysis technology exhibits outstanding advantages, such as simple, fast, and low-cost. What’s more, with the continuous innovation of its detection materials, it is of enormous potential for electrochemical method in the detection of heavy metals. This method provides a new idea for detecting lead and mercury in cosmetic.

Key words: lead, mercury, cosmetics, detection