What Price, White Face?

Finally, we may perhaps be about to have a much longed-for backlash over skin whitening creams and, if we do, it’s not before time. An article in the Guardian last week [find it here] put this grossly misguided notion of vanity firmly where it belongs – in a spotlight that questions the appropriateness of a global preference for white skin, along with the ethics that drive it, AND exactly what goes into the body - bleaching products that seem to be even more popular in countries where white skin is a desirable commodity for reasons far more culturally sinister than mere vanity. 

My initial feeling that anything that promises to bleach human skin cannot be good for our bodies was reinforced by the paragraph that reads “... skin-whitening products promising to be anti-melanin are now on sale, with worrying consequences. Dr Bav Shergill, consultant dermatologist and trustee of the British Skin Foundation, explains: "Melanin is produced by melanocytes to protect the DNA of our skin from sun damage. Excessively reducing this concentration of melanin may increase the risk of skin cancers." Other creams have been found to contain dangerous chemicals, such as hydroquinone and mercury. The British Skin Foundation advises that hydroquinone can cause intense irritation and uneven bleaching of the skin, and mercury can cause increased pigmentation and severe itchy rashes. Both these chemicals are banned in the EU though not elsewhere, and batches of under-the-counter creams are routinely confiscated by the UK authorities”.

Okay, let’s park vanity, cultural menace and a disturbing desire for armpit and genital whitener and “fairness baby oil” for a minute or two, and take a look at hydroquinone. Guess what? It’s used as a developing agent in photography and as an antioxidant in rubber, and is released in the effluent from those products after use.  Is that enough to put you off smearing it all over your own or your baby’s body?  NO?  Well, let’s dig a bit further, then.  How do you fancy being a candidate for tinnitus (ringing in the ears), dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting, dyspnoea (shortness of breath), erosion of your stomach lining, the swelling of your internal organs, cyanosis (impaired circulation), convulsions, delirium, and collapse?  NO?  Well, throw away the jar of pale promise then, because all of these things have been proven to be a human result from large amounts of this horrible ingredient being ingested and absorbed.  Add eye irritation, corneal problems, and impaired vision to the mix as potential side effects from repeated exposure and you have in your bathroom cabinet something a little more obnoxious than a socially repugnant genital or armpit whitener.  Try a bomb, literally waiting to detonate your lymph nodes, over time. 

Our skin is porous.  That’s the whole point of these creams, and the whole point of why nobody should be touching them with a barge pole.  No information is available on the reproductive, developmental, or carcinogenic effects of hydroquinone in humans, but that’s not to say the potential isn't there.  After all, there has been evidence of carcinogenic outcomes for orally-exposed rodents, and skin-treated mice showed an increased risk of skin tumours. Rats chronically exposed via the chemical being experimentally placed in their stomachs suffered from tremors, convulsions and death at the highest levels, as well as experiencing negative effects on their kidneys and stomach, with stomach lesions being reported in mice.  Rats exposed to hydroquinone in their diet ate less, lost weight, and developed aplastic anaemia.  Those that consumed the chemical in their water gained weight more slowly, developing changes in their blood composition and tissue degeneration in their intestines, liver, kidneys, and hearts.  Those poor, desperate little creatures also had enlarged liver and kidneys.  They didn't stand a chance, did they?

I think all that puts hydroquinone neatly in the non-desirable box.  So let’s look now at mercury, which is a common ingredient in both skin whitening creams and in many “run of the mill” ones out there for general use.  Allegedly banned in the EU (though still appearing in various cheap products that do leak into the market from elsewhere), mercury is easily absorbed through the skin, and in high concentration causes heavy metal poisoning resulting in a whole raft of deeply disturbing emotional and psychological symptoms [see here] and a string of scary physical ones.

Apparently in small doses mercury’s not toxic.  But my question is this: who gets to decide what level is a small, “safe” dose?  My guess is that it wouldn't be the people with the symptoms of mercury poisoning, or anyone at risk by virtue of having an already compromised immune system for any number of reasons.

The saddest thing here is that cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies don’t just pander to the growing number of people who believe that anything less than flawless white skin makes them socially inferior, or even ugly.  They ACTIVELY PROMOTE the notion that the only kind of beautiful is bleached.  What kind of human tragedy is this, that beauty or social desirability hinges on such a radical departure from what’s natural for anyone who doesn't already have snow white skin? Ironic, when you think that for so many years (while we were just as ignorant over the dangers of over-exposure to the sun as we now appear to be about skin bleaching creams), we baked our faces and bodies under a film of a rapid accelerant otherwise known as coconut or baby oil, in order to achieve brown faces!  Far too many people have paid the melanomic price for that, and still will for years to come. My face is full of sun-exposure scars, and I live in constant hope that the spectre of skin cancer doesn't steal forth to exact a high price for my folly, as it has for so many other vain young women of our teenage time.  Now that the pendulum is swinging the other way, how long will it be before we know what the real price of a "nice white face" might be?

For anyone researching the new skin-lightening wonder ingredient ChromabrightTM, it’s not easy to find any evidence of harmful effects from using products that contain it, with most of the positive commentary coming from the manufacturer and its champions.  Prima facie, that’s good news, but since it hasn't been around very long, my feeling is that it has yet to prove its worth as a risk free component of something we apply directly to our skin.  The fact that it appears to produce such radical results is disturbing enough, as is anything else that strips the skin of the vital melanin it produces to keep us safe from skin cancer.  Human and animal biological systems are miracles of science, designed to protect us from harm.  It’s why a graze scabs over.  It’s why we feel the need to take off a layer when we get hot, or put one on when we get cold.  It’s why we get hungry, thirsty, irritable or sleepy. The body is programmed to maintain homeostasis (equilibrium), and that includes producing melanin to go where it’s needed, to protect us from the harsh rays of the sun. 

What needs to change is NOT what we look like, in our naturally beautiful state - it’s cultural and social attitudes and expectations about what’s beautiful.  As long as women are sneered at and socially rejected in countries where having dark skin precludes them from eligibility for marriage, as long as western society relentlessly promotes young, white, impossibly beautiful (and all too often airbrushed) women to sell its products to the masses aspiring to the same unachievable status, and as long as women themselves remain preoccupied with vanity to the level where they become slaves to a beauty industry annually worth around $US 80Billion globally, nothing will change.  The industry feeds us and we feed the industry, and some of the prices we pay for what can either passively or actively compromise our health are truly staggering.  This most vicious of cycles is endlessly perpetuated, and the kind of sea change that would be needed to stop it is incredibly complex to achieve, and probably neither realistic nor achievable within our lifetime.  

So what can we do?  We can choose not to buy into the kind of promises created by the manufacturers of some leading brands (Including the one above), whose products contain irritants such as Tri-Ethanol Amine (TEA - used as an organic additive in cement production and in photographic processing, and Aluminium Starch Octenylsuccinate. A cosmetic ingredient review expert panel regard ASO as safe when used in any company's cosmetic formulations provided that established limitations imposed on heavy metal concentrations are not exceeded, meaning we may just have to trust the integrity of the manufacturers and the regulators that "fifty times better" results don't involve compromising too far in the wrong direction on the heavy metal content.  We can instead try some of the excellent evolving natural skincare alternatives that are currently on offer, and eschew those products that are seething with parabens, metals, bleaches, petroleum-based ingredients and other horrible chemicals that can end up in our cells and lymph nodes.  Scientists are producing some wonderful blends of natural products that are earth kind, skin kind and health kind, for companies that are thankfully emerging as the front-runners of a safe and sensible natural skincare and cosmetics industry.  There are even some natural alternatives for skin whitening, so if you really must do it, at least do some research into what kind of natural products are available, and find out exactly what is in them before you slather them into your skin.

I think it is a monumental human disgrace that women in certain cultures are regarded as inferior and are socially outcast because of their dark skin.  I also think it is a monumental human tragedy that the producers of skincare across the globe cannot adopt and portray some reality about what - and who - is beautiful. Currently they are driving the market and calling the tune.  The only way we can flip the tables and take control is to vote with our wallets, with our sensibilities, and with our commitment to maintaining our own health.  If WE drove the market, they would have to dance to OUR tune.  Imagine that!

Its worth considering that even if the ingredients in face whitening creams and other skincare products are NOT in fact harmful in some way, are they really necessary?  The general rule of thumb is that the longer the ingredients list, the more questionable the product - especially if its one that claims to be "pure" - as in not mixed or adulterated with any other substance or material, and without any extraneous and unnecessary elements.  When researching the ingredients or benefits of anything that comes in contact with our bodies, we need to be wary of accepting and trusting material that is published by the manufacturers and sellers themselves. Scientific Analysis of such ingredients and Independent Reviews of the promoted benefits will yield a much clearer picture of the origins, alternative uses and risks associated with the ingredients of whatever it is we're considering using. There are lots and lots of choices out there.  For the sake of our own health and well-being, we need to make sure that the choice we make for ourselves (and our families) is an INFORMED one!

In the end, no matter how beautiful, youthful or pale we all might look, none of it will matter if we don’t have our health. Except to the most deranged and obsessed of people, nothing, not even the whitest and most perfect of faces, can compensate for the worrying implications or the brutal reality of being poisoned.