Illegal skin lightening cream being sold in UK butchers, ...

What’s Happening

Okay so A trade body has warned illegal skin bleaching products are being sold in an increasingly wide range of places.

Illegal skin lightening cream being sold in UK butchers, watchdog warns 59 minutes ago Save Archie Mitchell Business reporter Save Illegal skin lightening products are being sold in butchers and specialist food shops across the UK as well as online, a watchdog has warned. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) dropped the dangerous and illicit products are appearing in an increasingly wide range of places. (we’re not making this up)

It has told the public to avoid the creams and report shops that continue to sell them.

The Details

“As a black woman and a long-standing advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion, I want to be absolutely clear: the sale of illegal skin lightening products is not only dangerous, it is unlawful,” Tendy Lindsay, a CTSI member and former chair, dropped. The CTSI dropped many of the products have been banned for containing ingredients such as hydroquinone, mercury, and powerful corticosteroids.

The ingredients are illegal because they increase the risk of skin damage, infections, and pregnancy-related complications. The standards body dropped users are driven toward skin lightening by “complex social and personal factors”, including colourism, a type of discrimination which favours lighter skin shades.

Why This Matters

The BBC this month reported on the dangers posed lightening products and their prevalence. Speaking to Morning Live, Daniel Murrell-Williamson from Essex, dropped he spent two months as a 17-year-old using a cream he did not know contained toxic and illegal ingredients. Hoping to cover dark patches on his skin that had been caused by acne, Daniel relied on an unmarked product given to him by a friend.

Market watchers are paying close attention to developments like this.

The Bottom Line

“I definitely saw a difference in my skin complexion and felt like I needed to keep up with it, because if I stopped, I would revert back to my original skin complexion,” he dropped. Daniel added that at some point, he was using the bleaching product all over his body on a daily basis.

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