Trading Standards Seize £500,000 Worth of Whitening Kits from West London Home
Trading Standards officers have seized £500,000 worth of teeth whitening kits from a home in West London, it has been confirmed.
Officers visited an address in Hillingdon and discovered a large number of kits, some containing whitening agents with up to 5.9 percent hydrogen peroxide. These products, which are 60 times the legal hydrogen peroxide limit and should only be supplied directly to trained dentists, have been available for sale to the general public, officers confirmed.
The kits, which claim to whiten the teeth in just 7 days, are marketed as a cheap and quick alternative to professional whitening treatment, which can cost up to £700 at a dental practice.
European law states that whitening products with more than 0.9 percent hydrogen peroxide cannot be sold directly to members of the public and must be handled by dentists, who have the relevant expertise and qualifications to treat patients safely.
There are concerns that people who use these products without the advice of a dentist risk their health, as strong bleaching agents can contribute to enamel damage, sensitivity and burning and irritation of the gums. As teeth whitening is a dental procedure, it should only be provided by dentists.
Uxbridge Magistrates Court has now issued an order for the kits, which totalled 12,000, to be destroyed and Trading Standards officers are working to establish how they were obtained and by whom. Early investigations claim that the stash, which is worth half a million pounds, belongs to a Polish man who has since left the UK. He claims that he was merely an agent for an American company and subsequent investigations found that the products could still be bought online on the 10th February.
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