Public Health

Two months after first going to hospital, a 65-year-old woman was dead – and her doctors are blaming the cosmetic creams she used on her face and body for decades.

The anonymous patient, from Togo, is one of a string of recent cases reported in medical journals of cancers in black African women linked to skin-lightening creams and lotions, prompting dermatologists to call for better regulation.

The melanin found in darker skin typically offers some protection against the sun damage which can cause cancers.

“Patients with black skin have a natural SPF of about 15, just by having pigmented skin,” says Prof Ncoza Dlova, head of dermatology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa,. “If they remove that melanin [with skin lightening creams], they’re actually removing the natural protection.”

Estimates of skin lightening product use in African countries range from 25% to 80% of women. Lighter skin is often seen as more desirable, in a trend with complex drivers including values imported in the colonial era.