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Use of skin lightening creams
- Source :
- BMJ (Clinical research ed.). 341
- Publication Year :
- 2010
-
Abstract
- Lack of recognition and regulation is having serious medical consequences Skin lightening (bleaching) cosmetics and toiletries are used to lighten the colour of darker skin. The practice, which is fuelled by racial prejudice, stems from the misconceptions that black skin is inferior and that someone with a fair skin is more attractive⇓. Seyllou/AFP/Getty Images By definition, cosmetics are meant to improve the appearance of the skin or enhance the attractiveness of users, not to alter the basic structure of the skin. Skin lightening creams alter the chemical structure of the skin by inhibiting the synthesis of melanin and should therefore be regulated as drugs not cosmetics. The active ingredients include hydroquinone, mercury, and highly potent fluorinated corticosteroid ointments and creams such as fluocinonide, betamethasone valerate, and clobetasol propionate. The list of ingredients has expanded because some manufacturers have introduced new chemicals of unknown safety—such as niacinamide, oxybenzone, and triethanolamine—to circumvent the efforts of government regulatory agencies that prohibited the use of the above chemicals in cosmetics and toiletries.1 Some products do not have ingredient labelling or place of manufacture,2 3 and inadequate regulation has provided users with easy access to cheap, substandard, and misbranded toxic products. These products are associated with serious and life threatening complications because they are used for long periods on a large body surface area and often under hot and humid tropical conditions, which promote percutaneous absorption. Complications such as exogenous ochronosis and colloid milium were initially reported in people with coloured …
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
media_common.quotation_subject
Skin Pigmentation
Cosmetics
Skin Diseases
chemistry.chemical_compound
Ingredient
Bleaching Agents
medicine
Humans
General Environmental Science
media_common
Active ingredient
integumentary system
Colloid milium
business.industry
General Engineering
General Medicine
Betamethasone valerate
Dermatology
Fluocinonide
Surgery
chemistry
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
Dermatologic Agents
Oxybenzone
Clobetasol propionate
business
medicine.drug
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17561833
- Volume :
- 341
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- BMJ (Clinical research ed.)
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....c5195c1e20f994229c2996443d42150b