Shoe seems to be more important than human skin to the national standards agency, Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI). The list of products under its mandatory certification includes shoe polish–and several of its types–but leaves out hundreds of items such as body lotion, face wash and hair colour, which are all applied directly on human skin. The list contains 155 items under five categories – food and agriculture, chemical, jute and textile, electronic and electric, and engineering products. Consumer-rights groups and health experts say keeping items made of ‘active’ chemical ingredients, in many cases harmful agents, out of the list allows the manufacturing and marketing of hazardous items that pose health hazards. “We have long been pressing BSTI to update the list of items under mandatory certification, but the institution is paying us little heed,” Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Secretary-General Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan told the FE. BSTI officials, however, said they have decided changes in the list, which will come into force shortly. “We’re including 13 and excluding 12 products,” institution’s Deputy Director (Admin) Md Taher Jamil told the FE. Shoe polish, typewriter ribbons and fountain-pen ink are among the items to be excluded while baby soap, florescent bulbs and rice-bran oil are on the list of inclusions. But products like body lotion, body wash, hair dye, face wash, face scrub and face mask are not being brought under the mandatory list this time for various reasons, BSTI officials said. “Before we bring any product under mandatory certification list, we need to have test facilities, set standard and develop enforcement mechanism,” he said, indicating lacking in this matter of high importance. Humayun Kabir said CAB took up the new-product-inclusion issue to meetings with BSTI several times, “but the institution says it is not interested to enlarge the list as it has set optional standards for many products that producers can follow”. Consumer-rights advocates say BSTI’s reluctance to set standards for many skin-and hair-care products has resulted in mushroom growth of such item manufactures, particularly in Dhaka. One of such manufacturers, based in Savar, told the FE that consumers do not buy their products that much directly, but salon and beauty parlours across the country and wholesalers at Dhaka’s Chowkbazar are the major buyers of their items. He told the FE on condition of anonymity that they use harmful hydroquinone, mineral oil, polyethylene glycol, parabens (preservatives) and sometimes hazardous mercury in skin-care products and formaldehyde and lead in hair dye. Asked if he knows about the harmfulness of the chemicals, he answered in the affirmative. But he asked how he would market his products without these low-cost agents when other manufacturers are using them. Dermatologists say these chemical agents, many of those banned for skin-care products in developed countries, can cause different types of skin ailments to their users.
