Caste system in India can be harmful to health
The use of lightening creams and smoothers provoke higher levels of chemical products in black women that in white ones. This is a problem that not only affects women in Africa or America, also in India is a common issue. In the Asian country the hierarchical breed system, which relates dark skin with social lowest strata, obsesses women with getting a clear skin.
The main test of this problem is the figures that evidence that 61percent of the dermatology market in India is surrounded with whitener creams.
In this country, it is not just about getting the western canon aesthetic, but having a clearer skin to avoid being related to the lowest strata. The main problem is that the chemists contained by products to whiten the skin can be very noxious for the health, they can provoke allergies, dermatitis and, in the worst of cases, skin cancer.
In other countries, mainly of Latin America and Africa, many women eliminate their ripples and they also clarify their skin.
According to specialist Ami R. Zota, professor of Environmental and Occupational Health in the Milken Public Health Institute of George Washington University, in the United States, the skin products that contain mercury are still used by certain populations, as the immigrant communities in North America. The mercury is an ingredient that used to be used as an ingredient of soaps and creams to clarify the skin.
At the moment, products to clarify the skin with mercury are forbidden in many countries, especially in the European Union and some African nations, but they can still be obtained on the Internet or in some stores that import cosmetics. In the US the Administration of Foods and Medications allow their sale whenever the concentrations of the metal are inferior to 1 milligram per kilogram. In Philippines, the norm is similar, while in Canada they accept up to 3 mg / kg. However, the regulation is not always completed.
In India, it is forbidden to import or manufacture cosmetics that contain mercury. However, a recent study revealed that the eleven lightening creams that were sold in the region of Delhi-Ghaziabad, contained concentrations of the metal. According to data of the World Organization Health, the main adverse effect of these products is the renal damage, although the metal can also cause cutaneous eruptions, fading and to diminish the resistance from the skin to bacterial infections or of mushrooms. In a year in the entire world, just the cosmetic products business moves around 350.000 million Euros.
