Pregnant Women In Ghana Are Taking Pills To Bleach Their Unborn Babies’ Skins

In many parts of Africa and Asia, lighter skinned woman is considered more beautiful, are believed to be more successful and more likely to find marriage. The origin of this belief in Africa is not clear, but researchers have linked it to Africa’s colonial history where white skin was the epitome of beauty. So, what do dark-skinned women do? They bleach, and despite the many dangers associated with the products, millions of Africans use them daily.
Studies show that one in three African women uses a skin lightening product and aggressive bleaching is most common among Nigerian, Ghanaian, Togolese and South African women. women use the products on a regular basis

Ghana is waging war against the multibillion dollar skin bleaching industry with a fresh and strict legislation, but it hasn’t slowed down. In fact, in a shocking turn of events, pregnant women in Ghana are being warned against a growing trend for taking pills (the skin lightening pill, Glutathione, was especially named) during pregnancy to lighten the skin of their unborn babies while they are still in the womb.
Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has warned women to stop using the pill, saying it is not FDA-approved and therefore illegal – not to mention that these (illegal) drugs can cause birth defects, including damage to limbs and internal organs.
Mixed supplement/antioxidant: glutathione, astaxanthin, biotin, saw palmetto, vitamin c. (Photo: HuffPost South Africa)
According to the FDA, in the past few months, the practice has grown even more rampant in Ghana with pills often smuggled into the country inside luggage at airports in large quantities. Glutathione pill for skin lightening has been gaining notorious popularity in different countries, especially across Africa and Asia.
At a media sensitisation workshop on unapproved bleaching pills and products, the FDA’s head of cosmetics and household chemicals, Emmanuel Nkrumah, said:
“The use of these drugs has gone to an alarming stage; it is ignorance that is making people do so. [The only things] that you take orally should be food, toothpaste and mouthwash, and not bleaching pills.”
And the fact that someone has to point this out to a prospective mother is more than scary.
Although there is no comprehensive data yet, the FDA says market surveillance and stakeholder activity have helped to reveal the trend among women cuts across all social classes.
Security agencies and police are working together to arrest and prosecute companies and individuals in possession of the illegal tablets.
People really graduated from bleaching their own skins to bleaching the skins of unborn children? Wow.