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(CNN) - A woman from Sacramento was poisoned by a skin lightening cream, leaving her in a coma. His was the first reported case of methylmercury poisoning of this type related to skin cream in the United States, reported the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC.
The 47-year-old woman visited a doctor in July this year because of a strange burning sensation and weakness in her arm. When she returned two weeks later with blurred vision and difficulty speaking, doctors admitted her to a hospital at the University of California, San Francisco, where her condition quickly decreased to "agitated delirium," wrote Dr. Paul Blanc of the Division of Occupation and Environmental Medicine of the UCSF and the California Poison Control System.
His body contained "abnormally high" levels of methylmercury, he wrote. Methylmercury is highly toxic and can cause permanent damage to the nervous system.
The CDC report indicates that your injuries are probably permanent.
- A woman is in a coma after using mercury contaminated facial cream brought from Mexico through an informal network
The woman used the toxic cream for years
His family told health officials that he used a cream to lighten the skin twice a day for the past seven years. She had bought the cream, a Pond's Rejuveness, in Mexico, which had been contaminated with methylmercury after its manufacture.
The woman acquired the cream through friends. The product is used as a skin lighter and to remove spots and wrinkles.
Officials tested the cream and discovered that it contained 12,000 parts per million methylmercury, a little more than 1.2%. It is illegal in the United States to sell skin creams that contain more than 1 ppm of mercury.
"Most of the harmful skin lightening creams are intentionally contaminated with inorganic mercury," said Blanc. "But in this case, the patient used a product to lighten the skin that contains organic mercury, which is much more toxic."
The damage that methylmercury inflicts on the nervous system often worsens after patients stop using or consuming contaminated products, he said.
The woman's condition continued to deteriorate even after undergoing chelation therapy, a treatment to remove mercury through the urine.
“The toxicity of the central nervous system, as in this case, is the hallmark of organic mercury; It usually appears after weeks or months of exposure, ”he said. "Once it manifests, it progresses rapidly and often worsens, despite eliminating any additional exposure."
Since the publication of the CDC report, the patient still could not speak or take care of herself, and the doctors had to put a feeding tube for her nutrition.
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More than 60 poisonings in 10 years
There have been more than 60 poisonings in California in the last decade related to homemade or unlabeled skin creams, although they all contained a less toxic form of mercury, the California Department of Public Health reported. It is unusual for creams to contain methylmercury. That happens most commonly in seafood.
Most of the contaminated creams were bought “in the street” through family or friends or brought from Mexico, the department said. They are often packaged in plastic containers without labels or are handmade, and are advertised to remove spots and wrinkles.
Some of the confiscated creams contained up to 21% of mercury, health officials said.
Mercury poisoning is marked by a wide range of neurological symptoms, including tremor, anxiety, numbness, tingling and unusually high levels of protein in the urine.
The symptoms are more evident in children: their hands and feet turn pink and their skin peels. Salivate excessively, are irritable and suffer from leg cramps and muscle weakness.
Mercury remains potentially dangerous by indirect exposure: children and babies were poisoned simply by interacting with family members who had used mercury contaminated cream.
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Avoid creams without aluminum foil or homemade labels, authorities advise
Public health officials advise consumers to look for protective sheets under the covers of skin creams, buy creams from known retailers, and avoid those with homemade labels or without labels.
Doctors whose patients use altered or imported skin creams are encouraged to take the products for the test.
The health department compiled a list of creams contaminated with mercury mainly imported from across the state. So far, five of the 38 creams have been linked to Sacramento County.