20/11/2015 Health Check

Now it's time for this month's Health Check.

Welcome to Health Check, your monthly dose of global health

stories. This month, we will be looking at the health of women

around the world. Coming up: Should you be worried about the safety of

sanitary products? Dangers of an eye opening beauty treatment. And we

celebrate the women who are the hidden heroes of health around the

world. We look at an innovative device helping more women to

breastfeed in Bangladesh. On any given day, millions of women around

the world are using tampons and sanitary pads but recently, women's

health organisations and an American congresswoman have raised concerns

about their safety. For Health Check, we investigate whether you

should be worried. US Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney has been on a

mission for over 15 years. Female hygiene, female health, female

reproductive health, female hygiene products. This should not be taboo.

We should be talking about it. She believes more academic research

should be done into the safety of feminine hygiene and sanitary

products. And doctors are seeing women who are suffering from

embarrassing conditions. Vulvar I Ching is one of the most common

problems I have seen. It can be from eczema or dermatitis. That can be

due to exposure or imitation -- irritation. Contact dermatitis

caused in part by sanitary pads can be debilitating. It intervenes with

many aspects of their lives daily functioning to intimate

relationships. The most frustrating part of all is they are not given an

absolute diagnosis. How common are cases like this? Well, there is very

little data out there, so it is hard to know the extent of the problem,

but some believe there are many risks associated with sanitary

products. Sanitary products are an integral part of most women's lives

and it is estimated that the average woman will use more than 16,800

tampons or pads in a lifetime. This can contain synthetic products to

make them more absorbent and fragrances, both of which women can

have reactions to. So, should women be worried about the safety of these

products? There are already many strict guidelines that the

manufacturers have to follow. They have to show that the raw materials

used to make these products safe for human use but also that the final

product does not induce any bad reactions. Manufacturers do follow

internationally recognised safety assessment is. This includes skin

irritation tests, which can be done on areas like the lower back. But

there is very little industry independent research about the

safety of these products. Carolyn Maloney has been trying to get a

bill passed by Congress that would change this in America. Women need

to know what is in hygiene products and fundamentally whether they are

safe or not. This bill is to achieve that goal, to call upon our specific

agencies, the FDA and MIH, the federal drug administration and

National Institutes of Health, to disclose to us what tests if any

have been done, what are the conclusions and what have they

learned. Apart from the rise in toxic shock syndrome cases in the

1980s, sanitary products do have a good safety record, so the women

currently experiencing problems today could just be the unlucky few

who are sensitive. Although it may only be a small number of women who

have bad effects using these products, more academic research in

this area can help to conclude definitively that sanitary products

are safe. That was Lizzie Crouch reporting. One of the conditions she

touched on there was contact dermatitis, which is something I see

quite a lot of in my job as a doctor. What isn't? The words

dermatitis means inflammation of the skin and there are two types. There

is irritant dermatitis and diligent dermatitis. If you look at this

picture of that lady's face... That looks very painful. That is almost

certainly an irritant dermatitis, caused by soap, oil or make up. And

this picture with the genes, that is almost certainly allergic dermatitis

to Nicole, because often buttons in jeans and trousers are made of

material that contains nickle. Nickle is an often cited material in

dermatitis. Latex as well. I used to find I could wear any earrings at

all but now if I were certain earrings, my earlobes go pink. Would

that be a nickle allergy? Almost certainly. And it is great and

satisfying as a doctor because you can feel very clever and say that is

a nickle allergy and as soon as you take away the offending item, it all

seems to clear up. You can see here is much more severe looking picture

of what looks like a couple of dolphins on a henna tattoo. This is

an irritant or an allergic dermatitis. This could be a mix of

both because often henna is mixed in with other guys and people often get

a holiday. I had one my ankle and it looks like a not very nice pink

bracelet. The weird thing is people can develop these allergies years

later. Yes and there is a theory that the more you come into contact

with something the more likely it is that it will trigger a reaction.

There is almost a switch on the immune system that suddenly triggers

a vast immune response and all of these inflammatory mediators like

histamine and other chemicals rushed to the skin and cause that

characteristic redness and inflammatory look. It does not

really matter at all if I cannot wear nickle earrings but can it get

more serious? Yes. Yourselves like a mild dermatitis because it

disappears the day after, but it can be much more severe, as some of

these images show. If you get dermatitis on your face, that can

have a psychological effect, which also affects the people in our next

piece. Eyelashes are big business in Japan. You can buy anything there

from boutiques, pharmacies and even vending machines. As the craze

spreads, the Japanese health authorities are becoming concerned

about the increasing number of actions that they cause they say

that the eyes of the window to the soul and in Japan, women are paying

vast amount of any to open them right up. Eyelashes extensions are

the latest craze here and it is an extremely intricate treatment that

should take about an hour or so with each hair is laid on a separately

with blue. When eyelashes extensions are done properly like this, it is

supposed to enhance your natural look. But for women using leaching

and the market, the result can be less than flattering. Chiori is one

customer who left a cheap parlour with more than she bargained for.

TRANSLATION: It was my third time getting eyelashes extensions. It

came as a cheap coupon from a beauty salon. Straightaway, it was painful

and my eyes started to sing. -- sting. But Chiori is not alone. A

government survey has shown that one in four women have experienced some

sort of irritation from eyelash extensions and doctors are reported

hundreds of cases in their clinics each year. TRANSLATION: Against

patients every two to three months coming in to complain about foreign

objects in their eyes, puffiness and irritation. The worst-case scenario

is caused by changing the service of your eye stop for example, if it

reads as damage during the procedure or if the extension is not properly

attached. That can result in an infection and is at its worst, you

can even lose your eyesight. -- and if that gets worse. Because of

potential complications, it is illegal to perform eyelash

extensions without a licence. But women on the hunt for bargained

treatments don't bother asking for proof and put themselves on -- at

risk. Since 2013, the government has started a crackdown on unlawful

practices in the hope of protecting consumers. TRANSLATION: We set a

rule that only those with hairdressing licence as are allowed

to do this treatment for it our union gives the certificates to

beauticians to frame and these marks to shops, but from the customer

perspective, there is