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People all over the world are willing to go to great lengths to make themselves whiter. Lexy investigates the truths about the skin lightening industry.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:01One of the fastest-growing sectors of the beauty industry is also one of its most controversial skin bleaching.
00:11All right, so we just pulled up to this market, and we're looking to connect with his colleague who's going
00:15to be doing it every time.
00:22When the color of your skin can determine your future, how far would you go to be lighter?
00:32Having a light skin, I think it is important here.
00:36Skin tone matters nowadays, and they prefer the white ones.
00:39When I was younger, they would always call me pretty but, pretty but dark.
00:45Whatever that fair girl embodies in my head is just someone that's a little better than me.
00:51Skin bleaching, also known as skin lightening or whitening, is a global market expected to grow to over $24 billion
00:59in the next decade.
01:01Advertisements peddling products can be seen across the globe.
01:05Asia holds the lion's share of the market, and at the heart of it lies the Philippines, with one of
01:11the highest rates of use in the world.
01:14The Philippines is a country on the economic rise, and its new money fuels the possibility of rapid social mobility.
01:21One of the most popular strategies to get a leg up is skin bleaching.
01:28But at what cost?
01:32It's estimated that one in two Filipinos have tried skin whitening products.
01:37I wanted to understand why, so I went to meet someone who's shaping the face of beauty, not only in
01:42the Philippines, but across the world.
01:44Dr. Vicky Bello.
01:47It's almost a status symbol like having an Hermes bag.
01:50It just sounds so politically incorrect that I'm having a hard thing.
01:54She's a celebrity dermatologist who's built a skin lightening empire.
01:58What kind of treatments do you do here for whitening?
02:01We do scrubs, lasers, wet and dry dermabrasion, capsules, intravenas.
02:07So we treat it from the inside, we treat it from the outside.
02:10My motto is to make the Philippines the most beautiful country in the world.
02:14And for many, that means skin whitening.
02:17Today, what do you want to do? Your usual gluteal drip? Your cinderella drip?
02:22One of the most popular procedures here is an IV drip.
02:25Lean back. You okay? Are you comfortable?
02:29Here, right.
02:30So we are about to see the cinderella drip.
02:33So that's a vein finder.
02:35Which is a mix of glutathione and vitamin C.
02:41The star ingredient, glutathione, is a controversial antioxidant to lighten the skin from the inside out.
02:50It hasn't been approved for cosmetic use by the FDA.
02:54Still, Dr. Bello's clients are willing to drop hundreds of dollars per session, taking on the risk in hopes of
03:02getting whiter.
03:02I've done some Hollywood celebrities, people coming in from London.
03:07While off-label glutathione requires more research, Dr. Bello argues that it's at least being done under medical supervision.
03:14I think you really get what you pay for it.
03:17Because some people, they just go for price.
03:20People will actually risk their lives just to get whiter.
03:23Things that are coming in with mercury and the creams, that's very destructive.
03:27That's really poisonous, actually.
03:29Videos online and in the news have emerged showing harmful side effects for some of these products.
03:35The whole body is the worst of the pantans.
03:40The first thing I've seen, I've also seen them.
03:42And then we've also gone to the FDA.
03:45Across the Philippines, women have reported signs of mercury poisoning.
03:50The culprit?
03:51Cheap whitening creams that often sell for a little over a dollar.
03:55I wanted to know what these products were and why people would risk using them for paler skin.
04:01It's a serious concern.
04:04This kind of cheap skin whitening creams, you can buy it everywhere.
04:08There's one man fighting this issue on the front lines.
04:12Tony Dizon, an activist at EcoWaste Coalition.
04:16We discovered that skin lightening is a product that has mercury concentration and that there is a risk.
04:25A variety of ingredients can be used for skin whitening.
04:28The basic idea is to slow melanin production.
04:32The less melanin, the lighter your skin.
04:35Vitamin C, hydroquinone, and kojic acid are some of the most common ones.
04:40But one of the cheapest and deadliest is mercury.
04:44A heavy metal that can be toxic for humans, even in tiny doses.
04:49Repeated exposure, like smearing it on your face every day, can lead to tremors, kidney failure, and even birth defects.
04:58So mercury isn't just an incidental contaminant.
05:02It's actually what's bleaching your skin.
05:04It's a serious concern, a public health concern.
05:09I couldn't believe these products were allowed on the market.
05:13It turns out, they aren't.
05:18Because they're so toxic, these mercury-laced creams are banned by the government.
05:24But they're still flooding into the country at an alarming rate.
05:28And the reason behind it is shocking.
05:30Some customs people would hate me for this.
05:34Customs employees are in collusion with the smuggling.
05:40What do you mean in collusion with the smugglers?
05:42They know that these container vans contain beauty products.
05:49And then they just let them slip through, and they receive some bribes.
05:53It's a culture in the Bureau that it is immoral to let drugs and firearms slip through customs.
06:05But beauty products don't seem to fall under that.
06:08In fact, some have this perception.
06:12They are helping Filipinas improve their appearance.
06:16It's almost like the culture around skin bleaching allows for this proliferation of illegal bleaching creams.
06:24Yes, definitely.
06:27It's baffling.
06:28But customs agents actually think they're doing people a favor by allowing cheap creams with mass appeal to hit the
06:35market,
06:35since few can afford high-end treatments.
06:38It makes for an uphill battle for Tony.
06:40But he's determined to crack down on this illegal activity.
06:45I'm riding along on an undercover buy, on the condition that I stay in the car and protect his colleagues'
06:51identity.
06:54What we're going to do is we're going to put a hidden camera to her.
07:00She will do the actual buying.
07:02So the hidden camera has been positioned in her bag, and it's pointing directly outwards,
07:07and she's going to wear her bag on the front.
07:09She's mic'd up, and they have a couple different people standing throughout the market
07:13for both safety and to capture different angles.
07:25How many of these little ones are the best-seller?
07:30The hidden ones in the face?
07:32The hidden ones are the best-seller in the face.
07:34It's safe tooperate, huh?
07:35Really?
07:38Huh?
07:39How many foods are there to get elevated?
07:41I need to put the liquid down, but I don't want to cut it apart.
07:43Huh.
07:50All right, so they just did the undercover buy,
07:53and let's look at some of the products that you got.
07:56Armed with these creams,
07:58the next step is to take them back to test just how dangerous they are.
08:03But why do people take these risks at all?
08:06Do you think that people who are buying the products,
08:08like in that store, for example, know how dangerous they are?
08:14What do you think about all the whitening products?
08:17Some of my friends told me that skin bleaching is so effective.
08:22They told me to try those things because I'm not white.
08:30Sa panahon kasi ngayon, mas edge na kasi na isang babae ang pagiging maputi.
08:35Kaya gumagamit ako ng mga whitening products.
08:39Yes, I lighten my skin to use soap and lotion.
08:44Skin whitening products that I use were glutathione pills, papaya soaps, whitening soaps, and lotions.
08:51They're not looking to be white like a white person.
08:55They're just looking to be like lighter skinned because historically that's what they perceive as not only beautiful,
09:01but it's also powerful.
09:04For more than 400 years, the Philippines was ruled by one foreign power or another.
09:10Spain, the United States, and even Japan for a brief period of time.
09:14Japanese occupation was celebrated by the invaders with a parade through the center of the city.
09:19The island nation finally declared its independence in 1946,
09:24but centuries of outside rule have shaped beauty standards to prize pale skin.
09:29It's a legacy that's very much alive today.
09:34Charlene Pega is one Filipina who attributes much of her success to her skin tone.
09:39She's an influencer with over 200,000 followers.
09:45Hold that.
09:46Looking great.
09:47On my Instagram, there are a lot of countries following me.
09:51They're like, oh, you look so great.
09:53Your skin is so fair.
09:55In the Philippines, if you have a fairer or lighter skin,
09:59you're more prettier, you're more beautiful,
10:01and you have a lot of advantages.
10:04Like many Filipinas, Charlene's beauty routine includes a daily whitening regimen.
10:10I have morning and I have evening routines.
10:13So this is the Kojisan soap.
10:14I'm using this for six years now.
10:17And you use it all over your body and your face?
10:19Yes, I use it on my body.
10:20I use it on my face.
10:21So I drink this once a day before I sleep.
10:25Looks like this.
10:26And in the morning, I feel my skin gets glowy.
10:31So today, I don't whiten my skin.
10:34I gave birth to a dark, beautiful baby girl.
10:38And I don't want my daughter to feel the same insecurity that I went through.
10:44People lighten their skin just to increase their attractiveness to the opposite sex.
10:48I feel my self-confidence more.
10:51I feel my better, I feel my better, I feel my better.
10:54I feel my better.
10:55I feel my better.
11:09Everybody who uses these products are very clear about the economic benefit.
11:14That far outweighs any risk.
11:17Back at the EcoWaste headquarters, I'm about to find out just how much risk there is.
11:22Why are you putting gloves on?
11:24Yes, because since this product has chemical, so we don't want to expose.
11:30Especially, I will be touching the product.
11:33And at the same time, we open up the windows.
11:36Because since we suspected that this product has mercury, this is a point-and-shoot device.
11:44The screen will show the concentration of mercury.
11:47So I have sort of an idea of what these numbers mean.
11:51What are the legal limits of mercury?
11:52In these products.
11:53For our country, it has a limit of one part per million.
11:57One part per million?
11:58Only one, yes.
11:59Okay.
12:00All right.
12:00So this cream here is like this bright yellow, almost like custardy consistency.
12:06Trying to hold my breath.
12:13Now you will see.
12:17Wow.
12:17So this is over four times the legal limit.
12:21More done.
12:22More done.
12:23More done.
12:24It's 42,000.
12:26This is in percent.
12:27So if you're going to convert it times 100 or times 1,000, then this is 42,000.
12:33Way, way beyond.
12:34I thought that it was shocking that it was four times the amount that it's allowed.
12:37It's 42,000 times the amount.
12:41Tony and I tested every cream they bought.
12:44Way beyond the limit.
12:46Jar after jar contained mercury at illegal and alarming levels.
12:51It's a little bit lower, yeah, but it still has mercury.
12:54So these products here are banned, they're illegal, but we just bought them today.
12:59Is that safe to say then that they're still being imported, they're still being smuggled in?
13:04Exactly.
13:04With results from our testing in hand, Tony's come to Quezon City Hall to demand the government remove these products
13:12from the streets.
13:17We don't want to hear any more victims of this mercury exposure.
13:28What is at stake with the work that you're doing?
13:32It is very important, especially in the country, because nobody does.
13:35EcoWaze is the only one doing this.
13:38The reality is, people in the Philippines and across the globe will continue to use skin whitening products.
13:45And until the culture that privileges lighter skin changes, it's people like Tony who look out for consumers to make
13:52sure products are safe.
13:53We've been out here for a few hours waiting for Tony, waiting on the news of whether or not the
13:58government's actually going to take action to try to seize all of these really toxic illegal products.
14:05Yeah! We got it! We got it!
14:09The meeting is a success.
14:11Wow, so what happened?
14:12One, of course, we got the support of all the agencies who will do the law enforcement action.
14:19So because of your investigation, they're now looking into it and you're going to get these products off the street.
14:23Yes, and we will still continue.
14:25Your victory moment.
14:26Yes, victory moment.
14:28It may seem like a small step, but Tony's tireless work makes the world of beauty a little bit safer.
14:34And that progress is something to root for.