Ali et al. 2024 - toxic metals in facial cosmetics from Benghazi markets

Ali, Ahmida, Busaadia, El-zwaey, Towier, and Ahmida measured Cr, Fe, Ni, Pb, and Cd in facial cosmetics purchased from Benghazi, Libya shops during 2022. The study covered mascara, lipstick, and foundation cream and reported concentrations in mg/kg finished product. Sample codes are de-identified, so this page preserves product-form means/ranges and code-level maxima without attaching any brand to a contamination value.

Key numbers

• Study identity: Advanced Journal of Chemistry-Section B article 6(2), pages 127-136; DOI 10.48309/AJCB.2024.429051.1220; article ID AJCB-2312-1220.
• Sample frame: 18 facial cosmetic products were randomly collected from Benghazi cosmetic shops, comprising 6 lipsticks, 6 mascaras, and 6 foundation creams. Table 2 lists three de-identified codes per product type (M1-M3, L1-L3, F1-F3), and Table 4 marks each product-type mean as n = 6.
• Table 4 basis: all metal concentrations are reported as mg/kg in finished cosmetic product. Each code-level value is the average of two separated determinations.
• Detection limits: Table 4 reports DLs of 0.5 ppb for Cd, 3 ppb for Fe, 10 ppb for Pb, and 2ppb for both Cr and Ni.
• Mascara, Table 4 (mg/kg): Cr mean 0.066 ±0.03, range 0.045-0.1; Fe mean 102.80 ±7.3, range 96.31-111.93; Ni mean 0.16 ±0.05, range 0.11-0.22; Pb mean 0.66 ±0.44, range 0.11-1.068; Cd mean 0.030 ±0.05, range <DL-0.091.
• Lipstick, Table 4 (mg/kg): Cr mean 0.0067 ±0.01, range <DL-0.020; Fe mean 117.80±22.0, range 90.51-138.27; Ni mean 0.45 ±0.07, range 0.42-0.58; Pb mean 0.12 ±0.07, range 0.066-0.21; Cd mean 0.15 ±0.04, range 0.12-0.20.
• Foundation cream, Table 4 (mg/kg): Cr mean 0.39 ±0.10, range 0.30-0.52; Fe mean 74.10 ±7.8, range 65.13-82.41; Ni mean 2.88 ±1.8, range 1.020-5.051; Pb mean 1.85 ±0.4, range 1.50-2.11; Cd mean 0.31 ±0.06, range 0.25-0.38.
• Code-level maxima, Table 4 (mg/kg): foundation code F3 had Ni 5.051 ±0.04, Pb 2.11 ±0.004, and Cd 0.38 ±0.005; foundation code F2 had Cr 0.52 ±0.008 and Fe 82.41 ±1.2; lipstick code L3 had Fe 138.27±1.3.
• Source comparator note: the authors state that foundation-cream Ni exceeded 1mg/kg, while Pb values were under the cited international limits. These are source-side comparators, not HMTc thresholds.
• Table 5 reported chronic daily intake ranges across cosmetic types as 8.86×10-7-1.02×10-4 mg/day for Cr, 1.71×10-4-0.18 mg/day for Fe, 6.62×10-6-1.85×10-3 mg/day for Ni, 4.26×10-6-1.03×10-3 mg/day for Pb, and 7.11×10-7-2.35×10-4 mg/day for Cd.
• Table 6 reported hazard index (HI) values of 2.0×10-2 for mascara, 5.0×10-2 for lipstick, and 2.1×10-4 for foundation cream; all individual HQ values were below 1.

Methods (brief)

The authors collected facial cosmetic products from Benghazi shops, grouped them as mascara, lipstick, and foundation cream, and mixed the same brands of each makeup sample for homogeneity. For digestion, 1 g of each sample was treated with 10 mL concentrated acid mixture of nitric acid, sulphuric acid, and perchloric acid in a 1:1:1 ratio, kept overnight, heated at 60 °C for 15 minutes, then heated at 130 °C for 1 hour. Digests were diluted to 25 mL, filtered through Whatman 41 paper, and analysed using a GBC model 932 Plus Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometer with air-acetylene flame and deuterium background correction. The article reports duplicate determinations and detection limits, but it does not report CRM checks, spike recoveries, LOQs, or uncertainty beyond code-level SDs.

Speciation: chromium is reported as total Cr, not Cr(VI). The study did not measure arsenic, mercury, or metal species.

Implications

Certification (HMTc): This is C-tier Libya-market occurrence evidence for adult facial cosmetics, especially foundation-cream Ni/Pb/Cd and lipstick Fe/Ni/Cd context. Downstream pooling should preserve the mg/kg finished-product basis, treat the product-type means as small de-identified market snapshots, and keep total Cr separate from Cr(VI).

Courses: The paper is useful for teaching cosmetic product routing, the distinction between de-identified code-level data and brand-linked values, and why QA metadata affects evidence tiering. The paper provides a compact example of source-side hazard-index calculations alongside product concentration tables.

App: If adult cosmetic profiles include Libya-market context, this source can support a brief card on Benghazi foundation creams, mascaras, and lipsticks. The source should not be used for brand ranking or for claiming Cr(VI) occurrence.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• makeup-foundation-powders-blush
• eye-makeup
• lipstick
• chromium
• iron
• nickel
• lead
• cadmium

Verification notes

• PDF text was extracted with pdftotext -layout to /tmp/mfk_june8_benghazi_facial_cosmetics.txt. The title page, abstract, sample collection section, digestion/FAAS method, Tables 2-6, Results narrative, and Conclusion were checked against this page.
• Identity checks before creation found no existing wiki/sources/ali2024-facial-cosmetics-metals-benghazi.md, no DOI hit for 10.48309/AJCB.2024.429051.1220, no raw-handle hit for MFK_the-health-risk-assessment-of-some-toxic-metals-in, and no article-ID/title hit for AJCB-2312-1220.
• Units are copied as reported (mg/kg for concentrations; ppb for detection limits; mg/day for CDI); no conversions were performed.
• Speciation: the article reports total Cr and does not report Cr(VI), arsenic, mercury, or methylmercury. This page uses Cr, not Cr-VI.
• Brand firewall: Table 2 reports product codes, colors, and manufacture countries but no brand names. This page does not identify brands and uses only de-identified code maxima and product-form means/ranges.
• Evidence tier: C because the study is a small Benghazi-market convenience sample with DOI and primary measurements but limited QA/QC reporting. The paper gives duplicate determinations and detection limits but no CRM, recovery, LOQ, or market-representative design.
• Routing: product slugs makeup-foundation-powders-blush, eye-makeup, and lipstick appear in the taxonomy snapshot. The live lipstick page is a retired adult-lipstick placeholder pending a broader Cat 13 adult lip-products destination; this page uses the existing slug and records the gap rather than inventing lip-products.

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.