Sexual stimulants, skin whitening creams and weight loss pills banned

Dubai: The Ministry of Health and Prevention has warned UAE residents about withdrawal of certain brands of contact lenses, skin care products, medicines, food supplements, fairness creams and sexual stimulants that are being distributed through various social media platforms and contain unregistered and unapproved ingredients that can cause cancer are harmful to health.

Dr Amin Hussain Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary of Public Health Policy and Medical Licensing sector at the ministry said: “This campaign to withdraw and ban certain products that fail to meet international standards is a strategy of the ministry to build quality and conform to high health standards.”

In a circular issued on Sunday, Al Amiri said: “We are concerned about public health and safety and are keen to see that all pharmaceutical products are manufactured with those standards and are forever vigilant regarding distribution of such products. Most of the products which have been withdrawn contain ingredients that are unregistered with the ministry or have failed to meet our approval standards. We call on the public to inform us about illegal distribution of these products within the UAE largely through the social media platforms.”

Dr Al Amiri also sought to assuage the fear of the public regarding withdrawal of an influenza vaccine in a neighbouring Gulf Country. He added: “Only one batch (P4A33IV) has been withdrawn while the rest of the batches are safe. All medicines available for influenza including the vaccine in the UAE, conform to the safety specifications of the ministry.”

The banned list of products include fairness creams and skin lightening lotions that contain hydroquinone and mercury. Hydroquinone is used as a bleaching or skin lightening agent which causes rashes and red blotches on the skin whereas mercury is carcinogenic. Some coffee sachets for weight loss are said to contain sibutramine which is an unregistered product with harmful side effects and some of the sexual stimulants available over the net contain sidenafil and sibutramine which are very harmful to people with a history of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high cholesterol and arrhythmia (irregular heart beat)

UAE residents who come across any products being distributed over the internet that contain harmful ingredients can register their online complaint on www.cpdpharma.ae or over phone number 04 2301448 or toll free number 80011111.