WITH the advent of large festivals like Eid, sales of substandard quality and counterfeited cosmetic items have increased in the city as unscrupulous businessmen are taking advantage of the ineffectiveness of the Bangladesh Standard Testing Institute (BSTI). National English daily The New Nation in a report on Tuesday said a mobile court accompanied by law enforcing agencies and BSTI on Monday conducted a raid and seized fake and unauthorized cosmetics, including fairness creams and perfumes, from different factories and warehouses in Old Dhaka. Rising sales of substandard cosmetic items are caused by the internal demands of low-priced fairness creams due to misplaced social values which equate being white with beauty.
The fraudulent businessmen generally use old-containers of popular brands to sell their dubious quality cosmetics mainly fairness cream, body spray, body lotion, hair gel, shaving foams and shampoos. The targeted customers of such products are the low-income group with a high percentage of them being Dhaka’s 20 lakh female garment workers and girls of rural areas. Cheap raw materials are used and unrefined petroleum is often applied to the creams and gels to give them a sticky feel while limestone powder is added to develop whiteness. Dermatologists said the contents of these products can induce different types of allergies including photo allergy which happens when fairness cream is applied to the skin which comes in contact with the ray of the sun. This could result in irritation, pimples and rashes. The fake cosmetic producers are getting away with their business and are exposing the general people to potential health hazards.
The demand for cosmetics— mainly fairness creams encourage unscrupulous people to manufacturing fake cosmetics as they can earn huge amounts by selling to teenage girls and some case guys who are dissatisfied with their natural skin colour and wish to have a brighter skin. From the ancient Egyptians to the days of Marilyn Monroe, pale skin was seen by many men and women as a symbol of beauty. It signified wealth as tan skin signified labourers and those who had to work long hours outside for a living.
The notion of ‘fair is beautiful’ is deeply rooted in our culture. In fact, its origins can be traced back well before the British colonial days to the advent of the caste system, wherein the priestly Brahmin class was associated with whiteness or purity and the inferior Shudras with blackness or filth. In contrast to the face of Bangladesh where women’s empowerment sets an example to the world we remains fixated by a fairness frenzy, fuelled further by factors such as the film industries and advertisements for creams that promise to lighten the skin. Anthropologically the skin colour symbolizes one’s own nature where a healthy figure, morality, education, confidence and intellectuality are the salient characteristics for aesthetic beauty. Being one hundred percent natural is one beauty trend that will never go out of style.
In context of BSTI reluctance and incapability, we call upon BSTI to launch such drives regularly so that dishonest producers of toxic cosmetics are stopped and punished.
