A huge amount of illegal and substandard cosmetics of various brands has been seized in several drives conducted by the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution.
BSTI Director general SM Ferdous Alam at a press conference on Wednesday said that the seized cosmetics were tested at the BSTI lab on Tuesday night, which contained more than 2,500 times the harmful hydroquinone content than the BSTI standard.
These are fatally harmful to the liver and kidneys, he added, said a press release.
Sample tests of the seized goods showed that according to the BSTI standard, the level of hydroquinone should be a maximum of 5 mg/kg, but the report found more than 2,500 times the hydroquinone content.
The release said that Ensign brand screen cream tested in the lab contained 13968.3 mg, which is 2793 times higher than the BSTI standard.
Among others, 12175.70mg of hydroquinone is found in Skinlight brand screen cream and 12325.39mg in Skinsign brand skin cream.
In the capital鈥檚 Chawk Bazar area, M/s Century Trade and M/s Swarna International were found to be marketing various brands of skin cream, baby oil, lipstick, skin powder, whitening cream products without obtaining BSTI鈥檚 license and clearance and by providing false information.
Taking cognizance of the crime of the company, the court imposed a fine of Tk 1,00,000 on each company.
At the same time, the company was directed to obtain CM license and clearance and market the products.
In addition, a total fine of Tk 2,00,000 was imposed for selling and distributing the said products without obtaining the registration certificate of the packaging as per the Weights and Measures Act, 2018.
Four lakh taka fines were imposed under two laws.
It is to be noted that illegal and substandard cosmetics worth about 1 crore taka were seized on Tuesday night.
