Skin Whitening Stirs Safety Concerns

[salonsofamerica.com]

http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_327011901.html

(CBS 5) A strange sounding beauty practice is making a comeback in the Bay Area. Women are ?Lightening? their faces to appear more desirable and beautiful.

On bright and sunny Bay Area days you may be surprised to find some people wearing visors and toting umbrellas.

"I have a lot of freckles, and I do not like being out in the sun," says Loretta. "I like clear complexion."

For countless woman of Asian descent, lily-white, flawless skin is still the feminine ideal.

?If you're dark skin, you're lower class. You're sort of a laborer. You work in the farms. You work in the fields,? says Jeanne Joiner. ?If you're upper class, you're always indoors and you've been taken care of."

The desire to get rid of dark spots caused by sun damage, pregnancy and contraceptives is felt by many women. It?s little wonder that the biggest boomers in cosmetics are skin whitening gels, lotions and serums. Bleaching products are flying off of the shelves.

Some of the products contain hydroquinone, a drug that lightens dark spots by interfering with the production of Melanin. Stronger versions are available by prescription.

But hydroquinone can also irritate the skin, and make it even more sensitive to sun. In fact, any sunlight may reverse the effect, and in rare cases, permanently darken the skin.

"We know very little about the long term effects," says Sonya Lunder of the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research organization. "In the absence of sound scientific data, we're relying on people not overusing or misusing the product"

She?s concerned about hydroquinone for the same reasons that Japan, parts of Europe, Canada and several African countries have banned it. She says that animal studies suggest that it is carcinogenic.

The FDA says it is safe and effective when used as directed. Many swear that prescription hydroquinone woks the best. But for some women, instead of using a lightener, they prefer to see the light.

"Pigmentation is never ever going to go away," Joiner says. "You can do a quick fix, (but) you go out in the sun and boom its back"

Joiner used to feel pressured to have lily-white skin. She tried prescription creams, but it was an uphill battle. She now takes care of her skin by using a good sunscreen and Vitamin C.

"I've been very, very happy with the results,? she says. ?I think my skin has been less pigmented now than ever."

Skin care professional Mary Tay has guided Joiner through the process.

"We forget that the skin is alive,? Tay says. ?It?s not a bathroom or a kitchen that you remodel every five years."

Tay writes about skin care in Asian magazines. She hopes that all women obsessed with whitening their skill will grow to understand that beauty is more than skin deep.

"I think the idea of feeling beautiful is having reached a harmony between what you feel from the outside and how you feel from the inside," Tay says.

Many cosmetics companies are now using botanicals instead of hydroquinone in their skin whitening products.