Sickening Soap Trade
national |
miscellaneous |
news report 
Sunday July 28, 2002 14:36
by Fidel
Wicklow based company producing mercury soap for export to Africa.
Irish government health agencies have begun investigations into the manufacture, export, and sale of mercury soaps, which are marketed to African consumers in a number of countries, citing purported skin- and hair-lightening properties. Some brands of mercury soap have been found to contain 1-3% mercuric iodide. Prolonged use of these soaps can lead to kidney failure, neurologic disorders, and a number of cancers, as well as fetal damage in pregnant women.
Though the sale of such soaps was banned by European Union countries over a decade ago, their manufacture remains legal. Irish manufacturer Killarney Enterprises exports the bulk of its output to Africa but also continues to sell the soaps in Ireland. Countries including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Kenya have recently enacted bans against the products, which the World Health Organization states pose a "serious health hazard".
Lets do something about this!
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3You can learn more about the toxic soap factory in Arklow, Co. Wicklow at the link below. Today and Tomorrow (Monday, 30 July 2002) an expert from Harvard University and I will be visiting the factory to take a look.
If you'd like to meet up please give us a call at 087-6941060.
Earth Summit Ireland, the organization setup by Irish environmental NGO's for the Earth Summit in S.A. this year, have included an article on the Arklow soap factory in their report to be presented in Johannesburg. Not only did the IFA use over 1.5m euro of our taxes to help pay for their poisonous soap factory, but the EPA and local government (Wicklow County Council) do absolutely *no* environmental monitoring of their discharges into the local river.
The company, we're told, said to the County Council that they needn't bother monitor what comes out of their factory in Arklow because, sure, they have a zero waste manufacturing process (i.e. all the toxic mercuic iodide is mixed in dry form into soap and there is never any left over to wash away).
Alas, who needs monitoring when you have the word of an honest businessman who makes poisonous soap.
Sorry about this, of course its the IDA and not the IFA that I meant above. :-)
Glossy faces and toothy smiles plastered across today's billboards show an increasing ethnic diversity, implying a world in which racial inequalities and insecurities are finally decreasing. In many aspects, however, this is largely not the case. Skin lightening products are a multi-billion dollar industry designed specifically to cater to the insecurities concerning the colour of one's skin. It is a market that companies based largely in the privileged West are prepared to exploit, and at any cost - even if it means poisoning millions of people in the process. One of the products marketed and sold to mostly, African women who seek to lighten their skin are soaps and creams containing mercuric iodide, a known toxin that has drastic affects upon the skin, unborn embryos, the brain and kidneys.
Article on Arklow's toxix soap factory continues....
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