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Doctors Issue Warning on Skin-Altering Products

Lightening creams linked to dangerous medical conditions

By D. O. Volente
ConsumerAffairs.com

February 15, 2008

• Doctors Issue Warning on Skin-Altering Products • Mayo Clinic Cautions On Anti-Wrinkle Products • Cosmetics: A Fresh Face or Just a Waste? --- • More about cosmetics ...

Fairer skin, for some, is associated with attractiveness. So much so, that in many parts of the world, companies will use fair-skinned models for product placements, or even acting roles on the silver screen.

Not to mention the countless ads that run in magazines around the world, promotin various kinds of potions that can enhance one's look and seemingly make you more fairer than you actually are.

Doctors in England are issuing a warning that using any type of skin-lightening product, a la Michael Jackson, can be dangerous, even deadly. The warning was issued in the wake of a case in which a woman fell sick from using a product laced with a powerful steroid.

Initially, doctors treating the unidentified woman diagnosed her skin condition as "Cushing's Syndrome." The woman was extremely obese, had thin, bruised, stripy skin and suffered from muscle weakness. She had been trying unsuccessfully to conceive for the previous 18 months even though she had regular periods.

The doctors felt her condition could have been caused by the adrenal or pituitary glands. But blood tests turned up no sign of excess levels of two hormones that are the usual telltales of this syndrome.

After further inquiries, the patient admitted she had been using a skin-lightening cream for seven years, bought not from a pharmacist but from a local shop that was unauthorised to sell it.

The cream contained the steroid clobetasol, a powerful corticosteroid usually used against psoriasis and eczema. The woman had been using two tubes of it, amounting to about 60 grams (three ounces), a week.

Reporting the case study in a British journal, the doctors at London's Hammersmith Hospital urge physicians to be aware of the risk of illegal skin whiteners.

"The market is worth millions ... a year, in the UK alone. Creams can contain toxic substances, such as steroids and hydroxyquinone - and patients are typically unaware of the risks," they say.

Skin lightening is used in parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East where a fairer skin is associated with attractiveness. Campaigners against whitening say the practise reinforces discrimination and ancient stereotypes.

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