Ghana Doctors Warn of Danger From Skin-Bleaching

Skin-bleaching continues to be popular among women in this West African country despite warnings from doctors that it is a dangerous practice.

In the past, it was mostly prostitutes who were known to bleach their faces. However, body-bleaching is becoming a dangerous habit that “unites” women from all social classes, said the weekly Spectator.

But more men are also beginning to bleach their skins, with young fishermen in certain suburbs “standing out.”

Some women argue that they use bleaching creams and soaps to treat pimples or eczema. However, others say men are attracted to fair-skinned women.

“That is what the men like. They are attracted to women with fair skins,” said Naa Dede, a 20-year-old who sells oranges at an Accra truck park.

Doctors stress that bleaching creams and soaps contain dangerous compounds and should be used only with medical prescriptions.

These compounds are used in the treatment of certain skin diseases but need to be used carefully. According to Ghanaian doctors, overdose may weaken the body’s capability to withstand stress or prevent wounds from healing.

“People who use bleaching creams and soaps will, as time goes by, be unable to withstand stress,” said Dr. G.L. Boye, a lecturer at the Ghana Medical School in Accra.

Dr. E.N. Delle says every bleaching cream contains 2.15% of hydroquinone--a substance that when used over a prolonged period is transformed into an abnormal pigment inside the skin. Later, black spots appear on the skin, making it look aged and rough.

“Ghanaian women are gradually killing themselves and their unborn babies by bleaching their skins,” Delle said, adding that bleaching destroys melanin in the skin, which protects against the harmful effects of the sun.

Should it become necessary for those who bleach their skins to have an operation, he pointed out, surgeons find it difficult to do incisions because of the skin condition.

“The inability of such skins to heal” is another problem, Delle said.

Bleaching of skin also may cause defects such as growth of superfluous hair.

Despite these dangers, skin-bleaching is so widespread that businessmen and quacks have cashed in.

Several kinds of bleaching creams and soaps are imported to satisfy the growing market, and others have started producing bleaching creams and soaps of questionable quality in their homes.