KUALA LUMPUR: THE authorities are working round the clock to prevent harmful substances from flooding the local beauty industry, but they are facing an uphill battle in their bid to protect consumers.
Scores of beauty parlours, hiding behind their operating licences, are offering health products and services that are not only illegal, but also put the public’s lives at risk. The fact that many of them do so brazenly can, however, be their own undoing.
Greed is the weak link that authorities can exploit to rein in unscrupulous business operators, who claim that their “therapies” can prevent and cure many illnesses, including those that modern medicine have yet to be able to do so.
The Medicines (Advertisement and Sale) Act 1956 says 20 chronic illnesses are off-limits to advertisers.
In fact, under the law, those outside the healthcare industry have no business offering medical treatments.
The New Straits Times’ Special Probes Team brought to the authorities’ attention the growing number of beauty parlours offering illicit services, including invasive ones.
In the expose published in the New Sunday Times yesterday, our team also spoke to celebrities whose images that seemingly portrayed them as “endorsing” such therapy had been used by unscrupulous beauty parlours to lure the public.
While the celebrities had expressed regret over their actions and adviced the public to stay away from such “therapies”, the artiste associations had advised them to conduct due diligence prior to having their images being used for product and services.
Offering injectable beauty products sourced from, among others, Thailand, China and the local “backyard” cosmetics manufacturers, these operators thumb their noses at the authorities by brazenly marketing themselves on social media, and showing clips of celebrities supposedly endorsing their products.
A raid was immediately mounted. This marked the first phase of the ongoing offensive against errant beauty parlours, even as enforcers from the Health Ministry’s Pharmaceutical Services Division (PSD) began mapping out a comprehensive plan to nab to every single one of them.
It is understood that the ministry’s Malaysian Medical Device Authority (MDA) and the Medical Practices Division (MPD) will also be joining the operation as they, too, want to go after beauty parlours using unregistered medical devices and doctors who are complicit.
In a raid on a parlour in Kota Damansara that used images of celebrities in their promotional campaign, the authorities found that the appointments were always full.
The order book showed that 70 clients had signed up for its beauty injection packages, each in November and last month. Many also signed up for its ozone therapy packages. Some of the packages cost up to RM6,000.
The enforcement team also seized boxes believed to contain unregistered medicine in the parlour, including injectable concoctions, which the centre claimed were manufactured in Kedah.
At a parlour in Petaling Jaya, where bookings for the day was full, the nurse hired to carry out beauty injections and stick tubes from the ozone therapy machines into customers’ arms was scooping garbage into a dustpan when the raiding team showed up.
A officer asked her if she knew the composition of the chemicals that she had been injecting into the clients. Her response was: “I just do as I am told.”
Initially reluctant to respond to the officer, she gave in when told that they could report her to the Malaysian Nursing Board.
Another parlour that the enforcement team raided just a few kilometres away claimed that they would separate their customers according to their health status.
“Patients” with chronic illnesses would be directed to a clinic in Puchong, owned by a medical doctor, who also provided such therapy.
Healthy customers will undergo therapy at the beauty parlour.
During the raid on the parlour, there was a customer undergoing therapy, but no doctor was present to even supervise the procedure.
As part of their commitment to clean up the beauty industry of harzardous procedures and tainted cosmetics, the authorities are tweaking laws to give enforcers more bite.
A PSD spokesman said the plan was to amend the Sales of Drug Act 1952.
That could see offenders being slapped with harsher penalties for putting public health at risk.
“The amendment will see the penalty amount being increased from the current maximum of RM25,000 to RM100,000.
“The law will also provide a minimum penalty of no less than RM5,000. This is to ensure that the act serves its intended purpose of being a deterrent,” the spokesman told the team.