Skin Products Are Hazardous Wastes?

The Minnesota Department of Health has asked residents to stop using certain skin lightening products that contain high levels of mercury, and to dispose of the creams as a hazardous waste.  Some of the creams had mercury levels as high as 33,000 parts per million. To put that in context, the Ohio River  Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO Pollution Control Standards  requires discharges of mercury in wastewater from factories or municipalities to be below 12 parts per trillion, absent a variance: