HEALTH
HEALTH In 2001, the Kenya Bureau of Standards banned most skin-lightening creams. But Rehema Kahurananga discovered that these products are still freely available in Kenya, and that women are still using them, despite the enormous risk to life and looks.
a
Picture: True Love Library
Dying to be light
s Wairimu*, 22, gazes into the mirror, she The more popular skin-lighteners were creams and lotions, cannot believe that the face staring back at her followed by soaps and gels. They had charming names, often is her own. Where velvety skin once glowed, depicting happy, carefree models on the packaging, while pimples, scars and red rashes flourish. And to promising eager buyers beauty, happiness and, of course, make matters worse, she recently developed a lighter skin – some within a mere seven days. The prices pain in her lower back and was sent to a kidney ranged between Ksh 100 and Ksh 800 for products that would specialist by her doctor. If the tests come back last less than one month. positive for kidney failure, expensive dialysis Included in the variety of lighteners is what Swahili and medication will become a part of her life. speakers call mkorogo (mixture). Mkorogo is a blend of Never in a million years had this once chocolate beauty highly effective, yet potent ingredients – ranging from thought that the “skin-lightening creams” her older sister had prescription steroids to “herbal” extracts and even placenta recommended would do this to her skin and body. Wairimu – that are mixed by vendors as you wait. Using mkorogo had heard that the cosmetics could have terrible side-effects, often results in the worst side-effects because the mixture but dismissed the warnings as something that happens to can contain mercury, hydroquinone or even hydrogen “other people”. Now, thoughts of “if only” flash through her peroxide, which is used in the medical arena to clean the mind as she catches her reflection in the mirror. dirtiest of wounds. Betty*, 32, thought the product she had bought to lighten On my second day of exploring, I found a vendor who her skin blemishes was safe, as had mkorogo for sale. I told her a friend had recommended it that a very dark friend of mine “The Beyoncé ideal, where and it was obtainable without a wanted to become light, so she black girls look as close to doctor’s prescription. But what offered me a non-hydroquinone Betty didn’t know was that the cream and body lotion. I then European as possible with product contained dangerous asked if she had any products steroids, and months later, her skin with hydroquinone and she blonde weaves, etc, also went the same way as Wairimu’s. picked out a handful of creams, leaves darker-skinned women gels, lotions and a tube of Fortunately, her internal organs remain intact. an extremely harsh feeling inadequate because Movate, The Kenya Bureau of Standards prescription steroid that is illegal (KEBS) website lists just seven to sell commercially. I had the they don’t look like that.” products that have been registered choice of buying individual with the Pharmacy and Poisons Board as suitable to treat skin items, or having my vendor mix me a jar of mkorogo; I went conditions related to colour under medical supervision. These for the latter. In this case, the concoction was made from a are: Betnovate; Mediven; Diprosone; Nerisone; Dermovate; hydroquinone-containing cream and oil – both with no listed Hydrocortisone; Oxy 5 and Oxy 10. concentrations – plus one full tube of Movate. The original Interestingly, over 100 products – in the form of creams, contents, claiming English, French and Italian origins, were lotions, gels, soaps and pills – are not approved for sale in emptied out and blended in a black plastic bag that didn’t Kenya because of their potentially harmful contents: namely rate high on the hygiene scale, then refilled into a jar. The hydroquinone, steroids, mercury and hydrogen peroxide. fact that some of these illegal products come from Europe According to the Bureau, these products are listed as harmful clearly make them more credible to the consumer. by the European Union, which plays a role in governing Interestingly, my amiable vendor did not even seem to Kenya’s standards through the European Economic Community realise that the products she was selling me were illegal Directives. However, the alarming news is that one or more of and could potentially cause organ damage. However, as she these harmful ingredients can easily be found in many products handed over the tube of Movate, she warned me not to use it consumers consider “safe” due to their easy availability. by itself lest I risk “burning” my skin. Twenty-five minutes To find out how easy it is to purchase these cosmetic and Ksh 750 later, I headed out with a jar of mkorogo, one “wonders”, I visited shops and centres in downtown bottle of hydroquinone-containing lotion and a full tube of Nairobi. Posing as a prospective skin-bleaching customer, I Movate – all banned by the KEBS. soon discovered how simple it is to buy skin-lighteners. In On a second visit some weeks later, I asked the vendor a well-known cosmetic shop, a sales assistant showed me why she had chosen this specific line of business. “It’s a myriad of skin-lightening products – some legitimate and business,” she told me. “Our customers come back. And others highly suspect because of their incomplete labelling. those who don’t are the ones who got a reaction because According to Kenyan law, all products should be properly they used the products incorrectly.” labelled, listing all ingredients, including concentrations, So what are the side-effects of skin-whiteners? To answer < and showing the complete addresses of the manufacturers. this, it is important to understand how skin colour works. true love eAst africa July 2006
65