Officials of the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) have arrested a woman at Mpondwe border post in Kasese while attempting to smuggle banned cosmetics disguised as a child on her back.
She was intercepted while crossing to Uganda from DR Congo through River Rubiiha. The woman looked like an exhausted mother with a chubby baby on her back.
The chairperson of Uganda’s customs authority has shared a picture of a detained smuggler who was intercepted at the country’s border post with the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
Dicksons Kateshumbwa tweeted that the smuggler had concealed banned cosmetics in a baby grow.
According to the URA officials, the woman looked like a mother carrying a child on her back however on a closer look it was a smuggler with banned cosmetics from D.R.Congo.
They said these cosmetics contain harmful and life-threatening components like hydroquinone and mercury that cause skin cancer.
URA has urged Ugandans to desist from purchasing of these skin lightening cream.
Recently, the Uganda National Bureau of standards imposed a ban and released a list of over 170 cosmetics , lotions and soaps said to be containing mercury and hydroquinone.
According to UNBS research has established that hydroquinone is a carcinogenic or a cancer-causing chemical. Hydroquinone has also been linked to the medical condition known as ochronosis in which the skin becomes dark and thick;
They noted that Long-term exposure to high levels of mercury can also cause damage to the kidneys, as well as digestive and nervous systems and other vital organs.
