Commonly utilized approaches for decreasing skin melanin are also often unsafe, and involve application of toxic mercury or arsenic compounds, especially common in India, China, Japan, and Korea, but also encountered in the U.S., and recently highlighted in a report from the California Department of Public Health (Report #14–046, 2014), or hydroquinone, a tyrosinase inhibitor, which has been banned in Europe because of concerns regarding its possible association with cancer (McGregor, 2007). Here, TYR is linked to cancer.