JEDDAH, 4 May 2006 — Customers in the Kingdom seem to have no problem with buying faked perfumes, but are they aware of the health risks involved?
A local newspaper reported that some customers of these fake brand-name perfumes in the Eastern Province were poisoned after spraying them on and inhaling them.
Another newspaper said a rumor spread in Riyadh through SMS that perfume sellers at traffic lights were persuading motorists to smell, or spraying them with, a perfume containing a deadly poisonous gas. It said the perfume killed 18 people and sent 35 others into intensive care within the last four days.
Health-care and security officials denied the rumor after investigations. Nevertheless, everyday we encounter unseemly characters peddling suspicious-looking bottles with stickers of popular brand-names at very cheap prices. For the unwitting, it might seem like a good deal, but like any other fake product, it has another price beyond money.
“I was approached by a guy who seemed to be of Yemeni origin as I was going to my car near Panda supermarket in Rawdah district. He offered me Boss (a brand-name for cologne) for SR25. As I kept saying no, he kept lowering the price until it was SR5. He sprayed a little on a piece of paper to convince me that it is original and although I was suspicious of him and the product, especially that it didn’t smell like the original, I figured for SR5 what’s the harm? Well let me tell you, when I sprayed it on my skin it gave me a rash,” Jaber Said told Arab News yesterday.
Many like Jaber are lured by such a bargain especially knowing that the high price of the original brand-name is mostly to cover the cost of the bottle and the marketing.
A housewife told Arab News that she purchases her perfumes and her husband’s colognes from a store in the Corniche area that sells all different brands for a much lower price than the fancy stores.
She speculates that perhaps the cologne is cheaper because it was cleared out from the main outlets to be sold at a discount in smaller shops. She said she would not consider buying from street vendors because of the sketchy origins of the product. That is exactly what officials are warning people against.
A health official in Jeddah told Arab News that they have not had any reports of poison or death cases caused by counterfeit perfumes but it is possible for these products to cause some health problems, especially for people with a respiratory condition, such as asthma, or who have allergic reactions to some skin products.
“These products are neither monitored nor regulated, so you don’t know what are their ingredients or how they are stored,” said Dr. Noha Dashash, deputy director of primary health care in Jeddah.
Ahmed Linjawy, public relations manager at Modern Products Company — joint ventured by Proctor & Gamble — as well as head of the Anti-Counterfeit Committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the public should be aware of the risks involved in buying pirated products that are ingested or, like colognes, applied topically.
“Officials are working hard at preventing these products from entering the country, but people have to do their part,” he said.
Linjawy said the majority of these products are smuggled in from abroad or entered under another name and then repackaged as a trademark product. Only a small percentage is manufactured locally.
