PUTRAJAYA, Sept 14 — A ban notification on Night Cream ForU By D Ains Beauty Empire has been issued as it was found to contain scheduled poisons and is no longer allowed to be sold in Malaysia said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) of the Health Ministry (MOH) has detected that the cosmetic product containing hydroquinone, tretinoin and betamethasone 17-valerate, and the use of products containing such substances without the supervision of health professionals can cause adverse side effects.

"Sellers and distributors of the cosmetic product should stop selling the cosmetic product immediately,” he said in a statement today.

Dr Noor Hisham said the sale and distribution of the cosmetic product violate the Control of Drugs and Cosmetics Regulations 1984.

According to him, hydroquinone can cause redness when applied on the skin, discomfort, unwanted skin colour changes, skin becoming hypersensitive, can prevent the pigmentation process (depigmentation) which reduces the skin’s protection from harmful ultra violet (UV) rays and can increase the risk of skin cancer.

He said unsupervised use of tretinoin could cause the affected area to become red, uncomfortable, sore, flaky and hypersensitive to sunlight.

Betamethasone 17-Valerate can cause the facial skin to become thin and irritable, change to skin pigment and increase the risk of being absorbed into the blood system and bringing harmful effects.

"Members of the public who are using the cosmetics product are advised to stop immediately and seek help from health professional if there are discomfort and adverse effects,” he said.

Consumers are advised to check the status of cosmetics product notifications by surfing the official NPRA site at www.npra.gov.my or via NPRA Product Status application which can be downloaded from Google Play Store. — Bernama