Skin bleaching causes skin cancer – Nurse

A Community Health Nurse has said people who bleach their skin “buy cancer of the skin and other diseases’ since bleaching destroys the skin’s ability to fight off all manner of germs.

She added that doctors who perform surgical operations on such people find it difficult to do the stitching after the surgery because the outer skin layer would have peeled off.

Mrs Alice Egyir was contributing to the topic; “Skin Bleaching and its Side-Effects”, at a meeting between patients and health workers at the Nkwantanum Health Centre in the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam District.

The Health centre had instituted the programme dubbed: “health for all” to educate patients on the dos and the don’ts of their health. It is held every morning from Monday to Friday especially, for patients who call at the centre for treatment.

The Medical Officer in-charge of the Centre, Chief James Mensah, who initiated the programme, in his contribution said God in his own wisdom gave the black race the beautiful black skin to enable them live comfortably in the tropics as they draw vitamin ‘B’ from the sun’s rays.

He said it was for this reason that many whites travel all the way to Africa to enjoy the “sun-bath”.

The Medical Officer advised pregnant women not to apply bleaching chemicals on their bodies because it would have side-effects on the unborn baby adding, “We must appreciate what God naturally gave to us and desist from imitations.”

According to him, resource persons, mostly staff are given special topics to deliberate on followed by questions and general discussions every morning before actual consultation starts.

Source: GNA