Re: P.Comm - Follow up - Is It True black hips are narrower...

From: DesertCactus (desertcactus_at_emailcorner.net)
Date: 07/13/04 

Date: 13 Jul 2004 13:28:44 -0700

> >
> > You're probably right. They may hate the way they look compared to
> > others, they may feel ugly,
>
> Blacks have written books about this problem - how they hate being black,
> everything about it.

Whitening skin can be deadly
By Dr. S. Allen Counter, Globe Correspondent, 12/16/2003

Earlier this year, I was asked by the editor of an international
biomedical journal to write a review article on the effects of mercury
exposure on children, an area in which I have conducted scientific
studies for the past seven years. I was surprised by the results.

Mexico and Nigeria and the border states of California, Texas and
Arizona all show extremely high rates of mercury poisoning.

In clinics in Arizona, for example, doctors had observed more than 300
patients who had toxic levels of mercury in their urine. I found
medical reports of similarly high levels of mercury poisoning among
patients in Saudi Arabia, Senegal, West Africa, and in Tanzania in
East Africa. Even among newly arrived Bosnian and Albanian refugees in
Germany, doctors have found patients with toxic levels of this same
type of mercury.

One of my first clues to unraveling this mystery turned out to be
basic geography: Most of the reported mercury-poisoning cases were
found in nations in the lower latitudes.

The second clue: In Mexico, as in other countries such as Saudi Arabia
and Pakistan, most of the patients with clinical evidence of mercury
poisoning were women. Even in the Southwestern Unites States, 96
percent of the more than 300 patients found to have abnormal mercury
levels were female.

In every case, clinical questioning revealed that the women had used
skin-whitening creams -- many for years. In other words, these women
had tried so desperately to whiten their skin color that they had
poisoned their bodies by applying mercury-based "beauty creams."

Ninety percent of the women entering border clinics in Arizona with
mercury poisoning were Mexican-American, and they like their Mexican
counterparts had been using skin-whitening creams such as "Crema de
Belleza-Manning," which is manufactured in Mexico. These
skin-whitening creams contain mercurous chloride, which is readily
absorbed through the skin. Saudi, African, and Asian women were also
using these skin-bleaching chemicals in a tragic attempt to change
their appearance to that of white women.

Mercury poisoning is known to cause neurological and kidney damage and
may also lead to psychiatric disorders.

Upon finding high levels of mercury in the urine of women and men in
Tanzania, scientists initially thought that the indigenous people had
been accidentally exposed to elemental mercury vapors from gold mining
operations or methylmercury from the consumption of fish from Lake
Victoria that had been contaminated by the liquid mercury discharge
from gold mines. It was later discovered that the high levels of
mercury in the urine of Tanzanians living around Lake Victoria were
the result of the use of mercury-based skin-whiteners. In other parts
of Africa, including Nigeria and Kenya, one finds widespread mercury
poisoning from the use of skin-lightening creams and soaps.

When asked why she thought women in Saudi Arabia used skin-whitening
creams, and in some cases even applied these creams to their children,
one woman from an Arab-American family replied directly, "Oh, that's
simple. It is well known that in many Arab families the whiter looking
children are the most preferred. People will often respond positively
to the lighter-colored child and simply ignore the darker one."

So, the prevalent medical evidence of high levels of mercury poisoning
among women of Saudi, African, Asian and Mexican backgrounds reflects
a common and prevailing belief that whiter skin has greater currency
and appeal.

Apparently, the patients reporting to clinics with mercury-induced
disease believe that the health risks associated with bleaching their
skins are outweighed by the rewarding sociocultural return. In other
words, they believe that removing the healthy melanin from their skin
with toxic creams and soaps makes them more valuable in their own
cultures and in European and Euro-American societies in general.

In an interview with one Latin American woman about identification and
self-image, I was told that "whiter-looking Spanish women are
generally perceived as more attractive to many Latino men and vice
versa." The woman, a journalist, went on to say that during her
childhood, her parents and her friends' parents had always carefully
screened the children invited to their parties "to be certain that
they were light enough in color" and thus "of sufficient socioeconomic
value to be included."

While one might accept skin-bleaching among adults as an unfortunate
matter of personal choice, albeit an ignorant one, the use of such
skin-lightening creams on children is unconscionable. The developing
nervous system of children is particularly vulnerable to toxic mercury
exposure and other vital organs are also susceptible. In one medical
report, a 3-month-old patient was found to have kidney, eye and blood
disease because the mother had used mercury-containing cosmetics
during pregnancy and later during breast-feeding.

Most women and men we interviewed seemed to have some inkling that
they were taking a chance to make themselves look whiter, but it's
unfair to say they knew the true risks.

Science has not yet revealed how quickly skin-whitening cream will
lead to health problems, though many say women see impacts just a few
weeks after they begin applying it. It is imperative that we educate
people throughout the world about the hazards of mercury exposure,
particularly the risks associated with skin-bleaching cosmetics.

Perhaps we must make an equally strong effort to convince women and
men of color that they are beautiful as they are. This task, however,
may be as challenging as trying to convince people with light skin
that it is unnecessary -- and hazardous to lie out in the sun or go to
a salon in pursuit of a tan.

Dr. S. Allen Counter is a professor of neurophysiology and neurology
at Harvard Medical School.

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2003/12/16/whitening_skin_can_be_deadly/

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