UFO Info Week-End

Henna tattoos can cause months of pain and discomfort and may lead to a lifelong

Henna tattoos can cause months of pain and discomfort and may lead to a lifelong allergy, a skin expert has warned.Bjorn Hausen of the Dermatological Centre in Buxtehude, Germany, says the temporary “tattoos” can cause contact dermatitis in some people, making the skin swollen, red and itchy.Mr Hausen says the problem is not the henna dye itself, but a chemical often added to make the tattoo darker. Para-phenylene diamine (PPD) is used in many industrial processes and exposure to it in a tattoo may not only harm the skin, but create hypersensitivity to the chemical. A lifelong allergy to PPD could make it impossible for the sufferer to enter certain professions.Henna body painting is a long tradition in India, where it is called “mehndi”, Morocco and Fiji. Its popularity in the West soared two years ago after Madonna had her hands elaborately decorated for her video to the song “Frozen”.Mr Hausen told New Scientist magazine: “It is possible that the mark from the tattoo will remain for several months, which is of course socially quite uncomfortable if it concerns parts of the body which are very visible, such as the hands or fingers. But above all, these tattoos can cause a hypersensitivity to PPD.”His findings appear in Deutsches Arzteblatt, the journal of the German Medical Association. Most parlours in Europe and the US use pure henna, which rarely causes allergies.

But street vendors and henna artists in Third World countries pose a much bigger risk, Mr Hausen warned.. The bug responsible for most cases of food poisoning in Britain is contaminating about half of all chickens on sale, the Food Standards Agency revealed yesterday, when it issued new safety guidelines to consumers to help prevent illness. The bug responsible for most cases of food poisoning in Britain is contaminating about half of all chickens on sale, the Food Standards Agency revealed yesterday, when it issued new safety guidelines to consumers to help prevent illness.Tests by the agency found worrying levels of contamination by the campylobacter bug in frozen, fresh, free-range and organic chicken.The bacteria, which causes stomach upset and abdominal pain and is dangerous for the elderly, children and pregnant women, accounts for almost three-quarters of the 65,000 food poisoning cases in Britain each year. The survey of chickens found that just under half of the chickens in England and Wales and about three-quarters of those in Scotland and Northern Ireland were contaminated with the bacteria.The agency said it had instructed poultry farmers to sterilise crates carrying chickens and was working with other government departments to find the reasons for the extremely high levels of the bug. The tests showed there were slightly higher levels of the bug in the 70 organic samples taken. Free-range chickens and factory-farmed poultry had the same levels of the bacteria.Sir John Krebs, chairman of the agency, warned consumers to ensure that chicken was “cooked through” and said people handling raw chicken should not touch other food to prevent cross-contamination.

But he admitted that experts were still baffled about the cause of the bug. Suspicions are focusing on the supply of water to chicken coops and the spread of the disease by rats and mice.Sir John said: “Levels of campylobacter in chickens are far too high This is partly because not enough is known about the bug. There is clearly a lot of work to be done here – but we and the industry are addressing the problem.”The bottom line is that we will not succeed in reducing food-borne illness if we don’t tackle campylobacter.”But Sir John said the agency’s strategy for tackling salmonella had been a success with contamination by the bacteria at the lowest level ever recorded. The survey, carried out between April and June, showed that levels of salmonella, another food poisoning bug, in chicken had dropped to an average of 5.8 per cent across the UK. In 1979 salmonella was found in 80 per cent of chickens but better hygiene procedures have virtually stamped out the disease.Chicken sold in Wales was the safest with only 3.6 per cent carrying the salmonella bug and 42 per cent testing positive for campylobacter.