Skin Whitening - Controversy and Negative Health Effects

Controversy and Negative Health Effects

There is evidence to suggest that some types of skin-whitening products use active ingredients (such as mercurous chloride) and hydroquinone which can be harmful. Hydroquinone has now been banned in Europe and in many other countries can only be prescribed by a doctor for certain skin conditions.

A test of common skin lightening creams available in Nigeria showed that they caused mutations in bacteria and were possibly carcinogenic.

There is a growing market in skin lightening products that are toxic-free. However, they are more costly due to their expensive ingredients. Japan and the Pacific are big markets for high quality skin lightening products imported from Europe. In India and Pakistan, Fair and Lovely by Unilever remains a popular brand despite the company being forced by the Indians to withdraw television advertisements for the product in 2007 .

Read more about this topic:  Skin Whitening

Famous quotes containing the words controversy, negative, health and/or effects:

    Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.
    Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)

    Coming out, all the way out, is offered more and more as the political solution to our oppression. The argument goes that, if people could see just how many of us there are, some in very important places, the negative stereotype would vanish overnight. ...It is far more realistic to suppose that, if the tenth of the population that is gay became visible tomorrow, the panic of the majority of people would inspire repressive legislation of a sort that would shock even the pessimists among us.
    Jane Rule (b. 1931)

    A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience.
    Sydney Smith (1771–1845)

    If I had any doubts at all about the justice of my dislike for Shakespeare, that doubt vanished completely. What a crude, immoral, vulgar, and senseless work Hamlet is. The whole thing is based on pagan vengeance; the only aim is to gather together as many effects as possible; there is no rhyme or reason about it.
    Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910)