Skin-lightening creams...Be very CAREFUL!

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From News24.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- London - A British court handed a couple nine-month suspended sentences on Thursday after they pleaded guilty to selling toxic skin-lightening creams. The Inner London Crown Court judge also ordered Yinka and Michael Oluyemi to pay £95 000 in fines and legal costs. They were convicted on 10 counts of flouting medical and safety regulations between July and December 2005. Prosecutor Anthony Dunkels told the court that the couple, who migrated from Nigeria more than 25 years ago, had made £1m a year selling the banned skin-bleaching products from their two cosmetics shops in Peckham, south London. Customers paid between £2 and £6 for the creams, which contained prescription-only steroids and a hair-bleaching agent called hydroquinone, a possible carcinogen linked to permanent skin damage, according to court testimony. Passing sentence, Judge Nicholas Philpot called the couple "hard-nosed business people determined to make money regardless of the danger to public health." Defense lawyer Nicholas Barraclough said his clients would now focus on selling wigs and hair extensions. Authorities have repeatedly ordered Yinka Oluyemi, 46, and her husband, Michael, 49, to stop selling the products. In April 2000, Britain's Medicines Control Agency first told them to stop, saying the creams contained more than three times the legal level of bleach. Skin tone is an obsession around the world, from Tokyo to small towns in central Africa, as people try to alter their skin to closer resemble light-skinned celebrities and advertising models. TheUS Food and Drug Administration has proposed banning over-the-counter sales of such products, saying possible health risks cannot justify their being sold without a prescription.