A spokesman for the health department urged people who had been using the cosmetic cream to stop immediately and seek advice from their doctors as soon as possible.

Mercury has long been used as a whitening agent in cosmetic creams, especially so in Asia where pale skin is seen as a sign of beauty and nobility.

But in high doses mercury is toxic and causes damage to the nervous system and kidneys and in severe cases can cause renal failure.

In 17th-century Europe, it was used in the process to make felt hats and the psychiatric changes it triggered in hatmakers led to the phrase 'as mad as a hatter' being coined.