Henna poisoning triggers Ajman salon inspections

The municipality has launched an intensive inspection of all beauty salons here after Gulf News published a report of an Arab woman admitted in the ICU at Al Qasimi Hospital a week after she applied black henna on her hands in an Ajman beauty salon. “Chemicals used to darken henna that can cause dangerous reactions and burn the skin have been banned in Ajman for a period of time,” Eng.Hamid Al Mulla, Director of the Public Health and Municipal Environmental Department at Ajman Municipality, told Gulf News yesterday Beauty salons are checked regularly in random inspections to ensure harmful additives that can cause “serious health complications” are not being added to the natural dye, Al Mulla said. Al Mulla said that “studies nowadays have proved that PPD, which is classified by the EU as an extremely potent skin sensitiser, is found in henna”. The municipality first imposes a penalty on any salon not complying with health standards. The substance will then be confiscated and the salon will face legal action. Salons can be shut down completely in case the violation is repeated, Al Mulla said He pointed out that the municipality receives complaints from salon customers from time to time and inspectors are sent to investigate these. Recently, the municipality received a complaint from a woman who experienced skin complications after applying black henna in a beauty salon in Ajman. Once the claim is confirmed by the municipality’s inspector legal action will be taken against the salon, Al Mulla added, Al Mulla explained that the municipality had not received any complaint from W.A., the 21-year-old Arab woman who was admitted in the ICU at Al Qasimi Hospital a week after she applied black henna on her hands in a Ajman beauty salon. But once she lodges a complaint with the municipality an investigation will be launched immediately, Al Mulla added