Woman goes blind after using skin lightening cream

A woman in Minnesota lost part of her vision and inadvertently put her entire household at risk of mercury poisoning, most likely from using beauty creams containing high levels of the toxic chemical, according to a case report shared exclusively with CNN.

The report, shared by Dr. Erin Batdorff with the Minnesota Poison Control System, details the extensive symptoms experienced by the woman, also a mother, and how home visits conducted by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) found high levels of mercury in her children’s bedrooms, bedding, household towels and laundry area.

“People have no idea,” Batdorff, a fellow in medical toxicology who examined the woman in her home, told CNN. “No one intentionally wants to hurt themselves or their family members. But it’s out there and you can’t see it, you can’t smell it. There’s no way [for consumers] to know whether [mercury] is in the creams or not because it’s not on the labels.”

The woman, whose name has been concealed in the report to protect her identity, was referred to Batdorff’s team after she reported an array of symptoms to multiple doctors, ranging from insomnia and leg pain to muscle weakness, fatigue and, eventually, the loss of her peripheral vision. Clinical tests revealed elevated levels of mercury in her blood and urine.

Batdorff explained that the most common symptoms she sees from potential mercury poisoning is tingling or numbness in a patient’s hands or feet. She described the woman’s loss of vision as “a more extreme and permanent symptom.”

“She will not recover her vision,” Batdorff told CNN. “So being a young woman that now has vision loss is really frightening and pretty concerning.”

The toxicologist added that there are likely to be many more people out there who are being exposed to toxic levels of mercury and are not showing symptoms, or at least not yet.

SOURCE: CNN health