Arklow's Toxic Soap Factory

Killarney Enterprises' Arklow Factory (unsignposted)

Extensive lobbying by environmental groups and politicians resulted in the 1989 ban on the sale and import of these products within the European Union. However, there was no ban placed on its production - leading to the policy that while mercuric soap is too dangerous to be sold in the EU, it is still perfectly legal to continue making it within Europe for export it to Africa. Legislation in South Africa has also resulted in the ban of mercuric soap and other toxic bleaching products. Nevertheless, it has done little to halt the proficient market. Goods are produced largely in the UK, imported through countries where it is not banned or seldom policed, and then smuggled into South Africa.

Konda Ku Mbuta Augustin is a biologist and researcher at the Institute for Research and Science for Health in Kinshasa, The Congo (formerly Zaire). He is also the coordinator for the Kinshasa branch of Anamed, an NGO that promotes natural medicine and is particularly concerned with medical independence for people of the Tropics. In Augustin’s experience it is mostly women that use the soaps and creams, although in some areas of Kinshasa like Tshikapa it is equally men and women. He maintains that the practice of skin lightening is common even among schoolchildren under the age of 15 and students of institutions and universities. The health effects Augustin has witnessed are devastating.

Lagos Street Market - Where Killarney Enterprises' soap is sold

"Visible damages of this practice are the cancers of the skin that develop on the sensitive parts of the cheeks, the neck, the shoulders and the chest. It is very common to meet persons that cover the neck or the chest or the shoulders to hide the damages from these products. The skin of certain parts of the body becomes rough and very dark - indeed blackish, greenish, reddish..."

Hans-Martin Hirt, a pharmacist who worked for six years in Zaire has also attested to the problems he has seen in a report released by Anamed Germany. "Whilst, in the course of time, other chemicals will degrade, mercury as a metallic element is absolutely not biodegradable. There is no way the body can get rid of mercury - it thus accumulates," the report states. "A woman using soap containing mercury regularly had 400 times more mercury in her blood than the average person." According to the World Health Organization, the urine of a three-month old baby was found to have mercury content 140 times higher than average - despite having never been washed with the soap. It was only through the mother's use. Once mercury has entered the skin, it poisons the whole body chronically, entering the brain and crossing the uteral barrier to enter the foetus. And it is not only the people using the products that suffer the consequences.

Skin the Wrong colour: Toxic Trade

Michael Hindley, a former member of the European Parliament, became aware of another issue of mercury poisoning in the late 1980s concerning workers at a factory producing mercuric soap in his constituency of Lancashire - W&E Products. According to the Anamed report, employee Linda Connors gave birth to a stillborn baby after seven months, and her second child, born by caesarean section, "suffered muscular spasms, stiffness and high muscle tone - all symptoms of heavy metal poisoning. The baby died after three months and tissue samples revealed mercury levels ten times higher than in that of a healthy child. Another employee, Margaret Heywood, delivered a baby by breech birth that died after only 13 hours. An autopsy revealed the entire kidney system of the baby was missing." Hindley embarked on a successful press campaign which resulted in the company being featured in a 1988 BBC program called the 'Bandung File', which won a consumer journalism award. W&E denied liability, but eventually settled out of court and amidst the bad publicity the factory closed down.

However, in the meantime, W&E had managed to expand into Ireland, seeking out Arklow - a small town renowned for its natural beauty, handicrafts and maritime industry, and also an area suffering from widespread unemployment. W&E changed its name to Killarney Enterprises and in 1987 secured a £750,000 grant of Irish taxpayer's money from the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) to set up business - where it still stands today. The Irish Industrial Development Authority responded to concerns about the factory's relocation at the time by asserting that the company would bring jobs to an area where they were desperately needed. However, according to the Wicklow People newspaper, in April of last year 18 employees were set to be made redundant as the company spent £600,000 on further automating itself to ensure, according to Managing Director Eddie McGrath, "competitiveness in the market place" and to "achieve new markets and new products". Donlon maintains that the factory is presently operating in full compliance with European laws, and that as far as the workers' health is concerned, the IDA can find no breach of health and safety regulations. His conclusion is that the issue is rather a moral and ethical one. The factory has expanded into contract soap making and continues to manufacture the mercuric soap, which is said to be bound for export to Lagos and Nigeria. Lagos is an area severely affected by mercury soap poisoning. By 1988, it was estimated that 90% of the patients at the Lagos Skin Clinic suffered from irreversible damage caused by mercury soaps.

Killarney Enterprises is Located in Arklow's Kilbride Business Park

The soap does not only end up in Africa. Two of the brands Killarney Enterprises allegedly produces - Jaribu and Tura - were among the brands seized in a raid in Copenhagen, Denmark early last year. The Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy subsequently released a report, stating that the products they had seized were largely being produced in Britain and the UK, and called upon Michael Meacher, the British Environment Minister, to support a Europe-wide ban on the manufacture of mercuric-based cosmetic products. The report also stated that "despite the fact that the manufacture of mercury-containing products is not illegal in the EC, [the Danish EPA] find it immoral that companies within the EC exploit Third World countries by producing and exporting these products, which pose serious health hazards to mankind." Soap and creams containing mercury have also been found by a journalist in Ireland covering the issue, who said they were readily available in shops over and under the counter. A worker in an African supplies store in Amsterdam confirmed he has seen the products in stores all over London, and Michael Hindley said he has also seen them in the black communities of London.

The problem is clearly one of stopping the products where they are being produced. The World Health Organization has expressed concern over the marketing of these products within the EU and the marketing of them in developing countries. However, the avenues through which it can be further regulated seem to be blocked by the World Trade Organization, who states that such laws would be in violation of trade regulations. For EU countries to realize the toxicity of mercuric-based products to the level of implementing a ban on its sale and import within their own countries, and then intentionally leaving a loophole where it can still be the main producer and exporter of the same product is nothing short of blatant hypocrisy and racism. While it may not be as simple a case of white people exploiting black people - much of the sale and smuggling of the products are also done by blacks - it nevertheless stands as a testament to the modern-day institutional and legislative racism that is still rampant.

Understanding the reasons as to why there is such a strong demand for the products is another step towards removing them from the market. The desire to adjust the colour of one's skin is clearly indicative of a myriad of deeper social and economic issues within society. Much of the issue is also rooted in the economic relations between the global North and the global South. In post-colonial Africa and especially South Africa during apartheid, economic and social opportunities were more available to those with lighter skin - a practice that is still common today. Augustin says that many black people in South Africa are often made to feel like their political, economic, and social failures are due to their dark skin; the white man being continually portrayed as a model of success. They thus desire the things they see the white man having - including lighter-skinned women. Many advertising agencies in Uganda have been known to request lighter-skinned models and depict them with darker-skinned men, leading women to the conclusion that it is necessary for them to appear this way to be attractive. This advertising, however, contrary to what it seems, can be seen to be less about what shade of skin one has and rather more about how those differences can be manipulated to inspire societal divisions and personal insecurities - and to increase industry profit.

The eradication of mercuric soaps and creams and other toxic bleaching products may feasibly come about with the long-overdue implementation of a worldwide ban on its production. However, responsibly dealing with the effects of centuries of racial inhumanity that shows little sign of ceasing and the prevailing mentality that seeks to profit from misery are far more arduous but pressing issues that also desperately need to be addressed.

To order the full Anamed Germany report by Keith Lindsay see www.anamed.org or email anamed@t-online.de

Eoin Dubsky is a student and activist pushing the issue of the factory in Arklow. Check out his website for updates on the issue: www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~slack/gluaiseacht/soapfactory.html