05/02/2018 London News

prospect of Britain remaining in any

type of customs union after

Welcome to BBC London News -

I'm Victoria Hollins.

An undercover investigation by BBC

London has exposed rogue beauticians

undertaking illegal teeth whitening

treatments which can leave patients

in crippling pain if they go wrong.

Only dentists and professionals

like hygienists can legally perform

the cosmetic procedure on customers.

Guy Lynn has this exclusive report.

Teeth whitening is one of the UK's

most popular cosmetic procedures.

After a series of treatments

patients can have

dramatically whiter teeth.

But as it's a medical procedure,

only a dentist or a regulated dental

professional can legally do

it on customers.

BBC London went undercover

to find rogue beauticians

offering treatments.

Such as Ashleigh Smith

near Paddington, who charges £100,

implies she's qualified...

Yeah, I am trained -

I am qualified, yeah.

Her only qualification is a one-day

course with a tooth whitening

firm, yet she illegally

performs dental procedures.

If you're seeing somebody

on the high street that's

attended a one-day course -

and putting that into perspective

dentists attend a five-year training

programme in order to qualify -

you're placing yourself

in harm's way.

The whitening kits and toothpaste

you can buy on the high street can

only contain a maximum of 0.01%

of the bleaching agent

hydrogen peroxide.

Anything stronger, up to 6%,

must be prescribed by a dentist.

And these pictures show why.

Used incorrectly, it can cause

burns, blisters and gum damage.

Fran Lowe from West

Ham is no dentist.

But this untrained beautician

carries out dental

procedures in her bedroom.

So what are you doing them,

why do you need to do this?

Don't touch that, because if it

gets on your hands it

will burn your hands.

Oh, is that the hydrogen peroxide?

And tells us what strength

hydrogen peroxide she'll

used to whiten teeth.

It does have hydrogen

peroxide in it?

It does, yeah, 25%.

By using whitener more

than four times the strength

allowed for a dentist,

she's breaking the law -

and knows it.

Obviously, you know,

in all honesty, you know,

you're not supposed to use

what I use.

It's for the dentist, isn't it?

That's why you pay £300

to go and have you teeth

done at the dentist.

So will she go ahead?

First she gives us a gumshield.

Bite down now - that's it...

Then she applies hydrogen peroxide.

What's that?

It's just a peroxide.

Usually she'd leave it

on for well over an hour,

but we've taken dental advice,

and abort straightaway.

You want to take it off?

You do?

After filming our researcher has

a full dental checkup,

and gets the all clear.

So in this situation you can season

quite bad burns from...

Ben Atkins treats people

after they've had botched hydrogen

peroxide operations.

We showed him our undercover

footage, and he says

it's the worst he's seen.

It's putting a patient's life

at risk doing dental procedure

is not in the dental surgery.

I see the other side when things

have gone wrong and patients

come into my surgery,

and I've got to deal with it,

and seeing this, it's astounding.

It shouldn't happen.

Ashleigh Smith said she used a safe

non-peroxide product,

but ignored all our requests

for a response.

Fran Lowe denied buying,

storing or using peroxide

gels on customers.

She claims she said she did

in order to get a sale.

She then said that she wasn't aware

that what she was doing was illegal,

and now says that she's stopped

doing teeth whitening altogether.

She also sold us a syringe with 700

times the strength peroxide that can

be purchased on the high streets.

We'll be handing back

to the authorities.

And during our investigation,

we heard of many other

beauticians ignoring warnings,

playing roulette

with patients' safety.

Guy Lynn, BBC London News.

You can see more on that on Inside

Out London, tonight at 7:30pm on BBC

One.

Work is due to get under

way today on a major

redevelopment of Brixton Arches.

Network Rail insists the scheme

will benefit the entire community.

But some local campaigners

fear local businesses

are being forced out,

and held their latest protest

yesterday to try to block the work.

The community will no longer be here

if this development goes ahead. This

is the backbone of the Brixton

community, that has served this

community for almost a century.

Workers on South Western railway

are to take industrial action

later this month in the long running

dispute over the role

of guards on trains.

Union members will refuse

to work any rest days

from February 16th to the 19th.

The company, which runs services

to and from London Waterloo -

the UK's busiest station -

is one of five operators involved

in rows over staffing which have led

to a series of strikes stretching

back almost two years.

It's 100 years tomorrow

since the bill was passed

giving some women the vote

for the first time.

Many women living in London

were still in service

and they were relying

on suffragettes and men

in Parliament to fight their cause.

Sarah Harris has been talking

to some of those whose lives

were beginning to change.

Now living in a Surrey care home,

Rose was born in 1914 and was told

by her parents that being a servant

was the only career open to her.

But she had other ideas.

I didn't want to go

into service, no way.

So I gathered my things and I got

on a bus and I left home.

I wasn't going to be

anybody's lackey.

I was worth more than that.

Rose trained to be a midwife,

encouraged by the bill making it

possible for some women to vote.

But there were still many rules that

didn't apply to the men.

How were women treated

if they got married in the job?

Oh, you couldn't.

So many were married

and they had their wedding rings

round their neck, hidden.

Marches demanding equality

were regularly held on the streets

of London but in Parliament,

protesters were relying

on the men to change the law.

Conservative politician

Baroness Jenkin campaigns

for more women MPs.

She is the great granddaughter

of Willoughby Dickinson,

who introduced the first women's

suffrage bill in 1907 and every year

until he lost his own

St Pancras seat in 1918.

He had two very clever sisters,

and one was a very eminent

doctor who was born,

I think, in 1958.

And she was a radiologist

and her husband was a very eminent

doctor and, in fact,

they set up I think six hospitals

in Serbia during the First World War

and he looked at his two sisters

in awe and he thought,

how is it that I as a man

have the vote and these two sisters

of mine don't?

So I think that was what was

behind his campaigning.

The bill turned out to be

only the beginning.

All women over 21 had

to wait another decade

until they got the vote.

Sarah Harris, BBC London news.

It is very cold outside, and was

this morning. Let's get a check on

the weather with Kate.

Good afternoon.

Well, it's a very cold day

really across-the-board.

We woke up to a widespread frost

and some flurries of snow as well.

One or two showers creeping

in from the east but also sunny

spells, so there is a bit more

ploughed through the afternoon.

It should stay mostly dry

and we still should see one or two

glimmers of sunshine as well.

The one thing that stays

constant is the temperature.

It is going to remain cold.

A north-easterly breeze blowing

through, maybe one or two showers,

which could fall of the wintry

but in the most part,

it is dry, some brighter

spells mixed in as well.

The temperature,

though, is struggling.

Two to four Celsius as a maximum.

Factor in that breeze -

it's not very strong

but it is going to remain cold.

Overnight tonight,

it is predominantly dry.

One or two showers potentially

out towards the east.

Clear spells and the

temperature dropping.

The wind veers round from the North,

again still very like.

The wind veers round from the North,

again still very light.

The minimum temperature

between minus two and zero,

so another widespread,

sharp frost for tomorrow morning.

Some bright spells around,

some patchy cloud.

It looks like it is going to stay

reasonably dry all day

with the showers staying

away in the east, so dry

sunshine until the afternoon,

then we will start to see more cloud

whittling down from the North.

Again, cold, three to four Celsius

the maximum in the northerly winds.

It is not until tomorrow evening

towards the rush hour that we could

see a bit of snowfall making its way

on that cloud through the first part

of the evening.

Steadily it will move south,

so there is potential

for a bit of snow.

Temperatures down to zero,

so a cold start again on

Wednesday.

Right, that's about it from me. Your

6:30pm evening programme will be

later with Riz. There is more on the

website and a Facebook page, but for

now from all of us, have a lovely

afternoon, whatever