Raising Awareness on the Health Risks of Skin-lightening Practice and Chemical Exposure Using Cultural Lens Approach

项目摘要 项目名称： 皮肤美白，美白，漂白产品是多产的黑人和棕色社区 但它们在美国产生了特别强烈的影响，非洲和 亚洲亮肤产品有许多不同的形式，包括肥皂，面霜，乳液 和可吸收的药片这是一个庞大的行业：在全球范围内，它的估计市场价值为8.3美元 亿美元，而美国S.仅市场就估计为23亿美元。考虑到这个行业的规模， 我们必须提高对这些有毒物质的健康和心理影响的认识， 产品.它是高度不受管制的，分散的，产品在高端场所销售 零售店到社区街角商店。产品含有一系列有害化学物质 包括汞、对苯二酚和类固醇，这些药物有望使皮肤变亮或减少黑色素。 斑点，但这些产品可以有一系列的负面影响，包括对人的 生殖和神经健康。我们特别担心它可能产生的影响 对妇女的健康，不仅对她们的生殖健康，而且对肾脏也有负面影响， 神经系统问题和儿童早期发育问题， 汞对发展的负面影响许多消费者不知道 与使用或误用这些产品有关的危险。例如，我们已经看到 由于使用亮肤产品，尿液中汞含量较高的个人。 明尼苏达州索马里社区的妇女由于接触汞而失明， 亮肤霜为了解决这一巨大的健康差距， 影响有色人种社区，我们需要得到支持，以扩大目前的推广， 我们正在进行的教育，以打击皮肤美白和化学品暴露。使用这些 产品也是由色彩主义驱动的，社会和种族压力导致了对色彩的感觉。 不充分或内在的种族主义。因此，社区教育工作必须解决 这个问题的根本原因，考虑如何提升和沟通不同的美的信息 标准和社区力量，同时还传达有关 化学物质对健康的危害。 项目活动： 我们认识到，文化特性和信任对这项工作至关重要。社区获得 各种形式的信息-来自可信赖的社区卫生工作者、文化经纪人、当地 语言媒体和社区领导人。大多数使用这些产品的社区不 参考公共卫生网站或FDA网站。因此，我们建议以 三种形式-信息图表、短片和当地语言新闻媒体。我们亦会 我正在制作一个动画视频，将被翻译成三种语言：索马里语，西班牙语， Hmong。无论是短视频还是长视频，我们都会将信息翻译成多种语言。 我们计划制作五个视频。在过去和现在，我们通过Beautywell的工作是 社区工作，我们致力于满足每个社区的具体需求， 受到皮肤美白实践和化学品暴露的影响。

Project Summary Project: Skin-lightening, whitening, and bleaching products are prolific in Black and Brown communities throughout the world, but they have had a particularly strong impact in the U.S., Africa and Asia. Skin-lightening products come in many different forms, including soaps, creams, lotions and ingestible pills. This is a massive industry: Globally, it’s estimated market value is $8.3 billion, and the U. S. market alone is an estimated $2.3 billion. Given the size of this industry, it is critical that we raise awareness of the health and psychological impact of these toxic products. It is highly unregulated, diffuse, and the products are sold in venues from high end retail stores to community corner stores. Products contain a range of harmful chemicals including mercury, hydroquinone, and steroids, that promise to lighten skin or reduce dark spots, but these products can have a range of negative impacts including on a person’s reproductive and neurological health. We are especially worried about the impact it can have for women’s health, not only on their reproductive health but also negative kidney effects, neurological problems and early childhood developmental problems, given what we know about mercury’s negative developmental impacts. Many consumers are unaware of the dangers associated with the use or misuse of these products. For example, we have seen individuals that had higher mercury in their urine due to use of skin-lightening products. women in Minnesota from the Somali community lost her vision due to mercury exposure from skin-lighting cream. In order to address this huge health disparity that is disproportionately impacting communities of color we need to get support to expand the current outreach and education we are doing to combat skin-lightening and chemical exposures. The use of these products is also driven by colorism, where social and racial pressures lead to feelings of inadequacy or internalized racism. Thus, educational efforts for communities must address the root causes of this issue, consider how to uplift and communicate messages of diverse beauty standards and community strength, while also communicating specific information about health harms from chemicals. Project Activities: We have learned that cultural specificity and trust is critical to this work. Communities receive information in diverse formats-- from trusted community health workers, cultural brokers, local language media, and community leaders. Most communities utilizing these products do not refer to public health websites or the FDA websites. Thus, we propose to produce content in three formats-- an infographic, short form videos, and local language news media. Also, we will be developing an animated video that will be translated into three languages: Somali, Spanish and Hmong. Both short and longer videos we will translate messages into several languages. We plan to make five videos. In the past and currently our work through Beautywell is community-based work and we work to respond to the specific needs of each community that is impacted by skin-lightening practices and chemical exposures.