This is another extract from the
Mail & Guardian, Johanesburg, South Africa. September 3rd-9th
1999
Another burning issue in South Africa apart from
the "Trade Union Strikes" and the "All African Games" is the
Booming business of illegal sale of skin-lightening creams containing a chemical
agent which eventually disfigures the consumers.
Consignments of the cosmetics creams
manufactured in the United Kingdom are pouring into African
countries.
In South Africa, where there are strict controls
on the sale of the bleaching active agent used in the
product-Hdroquinone-doctors have been horrified to find the British made
products on open sale in pharmacies and supermarket chains.
A Mail & guradina investigation in
conjunction with The Observer in London has established that some of the creams
from Britain contain far higher percentages of hydroquinone than is legally
permitted in South Africa as well as the European Union.
The products also have misleading claims that
they incorporate a sun-screening agent on their packaging. Hydorquinone
inhibits the production of the skin pigment melanim and is particularly damaging
in combination with the sun's rays.
South Africa's Medicines control Council is
trying to hunt dowm the importers and says there is evidence that the products
are being smuggled into South Africa via francophone countries.
Manchester based Nish Cosmetics, which makes
three of the most popular skin lightening creams in Africa-Jaribu, Mekako and
Amira-said it kept strictly to European Union regulations, which alow only 2%
hydroquinone, both Amira and Jaribu contained nearly twice that
amount.
The creams also claimed to contain"special sun-screening
agent allantoin". Allantoin is a soothing agent commonly used in cosmetics,
but has no sun-screening qualities.
A fourth product, Rico Complexion Cream, made by Rico Skin
Care in EGham, Surrey, contained more than the permitted levels of
hydroquinone.
Naomi Pule a representative for the South African Medicines
Control Council, said none of the products were licensed.
Steve Dunning, Manager of Nish Cosmetics, said his company
exported " container loads" of skin-lightening creams, although he
could not give precise figures.
He said 99% of exports were to Kenya, where a local compnay
distributed the creams to the rest of the continent.
Dunning said Nish Cosmetices restricted levels of hydroquinone
to 1%. "It just about works at that," he said. He added that he knew
these products were not legal in South Africa, but said counterfeit products
were sometimes available.
" We are aware that our products have been
counterfeited, possibly over here (the UK). The police have been
informed."
A second British company, Anglo Fabrics Ltd of Bolton, a name
found on Jaribu and Mekako packing in South Africa, said it had recently sold
its distribution rights to Excom, a company based in Dubai.
British dermatologist Sujata Jully is campaigning for a total
ban on skin lighteners in the European Union.
The proportion doesn't matter. It is the . It is the
accumulation that causes the problems, "she says. Whne you orignally put it
on it seems to work, but it has the reverse effect in the sun, so the person
uses more.
" The skin breaks open and it penetrates into the
bloodstrems, the kidneys and liver. The disfigurements tht we see are quite
horrible.
The across the counter sale of skin lightening creams
containing hydroquinone was outlawed in SOuth Africa in 1992. Regualtions were
introduced requiring creams containing up to 2% hydroquinone to be registered
and soal only throught pharmacies. Higher concentrations could only be sola on
prescription.
Dr. Hilary Carman, a South African Dermatologist involved in
the 1992 campaign to control the use of hydroquinone, described the British
exports as "immoral".
"It is another example of the exploitation of the Third
World by the First World,"she said.
"Like women the world over, Africans are buying a
dream and are being sold a lie".
she said the promis by manufactureres that their products made
skins lighter was fraudulent."They in fact make them darker and disfigure
them."
Carman believes there is a hugh trade in skin lighteners
across Africa. Skin lightening creams used to contain mercury as the bleaching
agent, even though mercury can damge the brain and tissues but preparations
containing mercury are outlawed in South Africa many manufacturers replaced it
with hydroquinone.
Professor George Findley at the University of Pretoria
described how the chemical first bleaches the skins, but then coarsen it,
creating black lumps which can develop into abscesses and ulcers.
These effects seem to be accellerated by exposure to the sun,
making them particularly dangerous for Africa.
Research suggest that blacks resort to skin lightening creams
because of racial prejudice.
Women using creams told pollsters in a survey carried out in
the 1980s that they believed black skins were "inferior".
The Struggle Continues!!!
Ndey Jobarteh