Advanced level 2024 CASPA mock English Language 2
Advanced level 2024 CASPA mock English Language 2
SECTION A: SUMMARY AND TEXT RECONSTRUCTION (30 MARKS)
Question 1: SUMMARY (15 MARKS)
Read the following passage on “Why should skincare be a concern” carefully, and summarise it in one
paragraph of not more than 150 words.
Women in many countries use cosmetic products that lighten their skin, in pursuit of “fair-skinned beauty”. Some
of the products may be harmless, but others contain potentially hazardous ingredients such as inorganic mercury
compounds, hydroquinone, and steroids. These products are often attached to large areas of the skin, left on skin
for hours at a time, and used repeatedly for weeks, months, or years. Mercury containing skin lightening cosmetics
poses significant risks for users. Mercury absorbed through the skin from lightening products can damage the
skin itself, the kidneys and the nervous system. Government urgently needs to restrict the production, sale, and
distribution of the products and educate consumers about the hazards they pose.
Skin-lighteners are sold as creams, lotions, and soaps. Hundreds if not thousands of them are available in the
global market. Unfortunately, the most effective ingredients, which include mercury compounds and
hydroquinone, are also the cheapest, and that induces many manufacturers to use them in products, despite their
documented toxic hazards.
When asked why they used the products, the respondents to the survey said they felt they looked younger with a
fair complexion. Skin lighteners are heavily marketed to women, with the message that they hold a key to beauty.
The surveys cited above and others have found that many women use the products for extended periods, up to 20
years in some cases.
Women who use mercury containing skin lighteners often have elevated mercury levels in their hair, blood, and
urine. Long-term use of mercury-based skin lighteners often produce a characteristic, slate, grey, skin colour.
Over-pigmented skin is a common problem among African women caused by mercury and/or hydroquinone in
skin lightening creams, among other factors. Ammoniated mercury, used in some skin lightening creams, can
cause rashes and allergic reactions. Other ingredients in these products, in particular steroids, also damage the
skin, sometimes severely. Kidney damage caused by long-term use of mercury containing skin lightening creams
has been reported by investigators in China, Hong Kong and UL. In those cases, one of the sources of mercury
exposure was identified and the women stopped using the harmful products, their kidney function gradually
returned to normal. Unfortunately, most women who use skin lightening products are likely to be seen by a
medical professional who could detect such kidney damage at an early stage and eliminate their mercury exposure
before more serious disease develops.
Mercury is also a toxic to the nervous system. Users of mercury-containing soaps in Kenya had symptoms of
nervous system toxicity including tremors, lassitude, vertigo, loss of memory and generalized aches and pains,
all classic signs of inorganic mercury poisoning. Two German women who used skin lighteners for up to 20 years,
each suffered from headaches, abdominal cramps and shortness of breath, both were repeatedly hospitalized. On
the other hand, a large study in Hong Kong found 78 percent of women using mercury containing skin lighteners
reported no symptoms, although two thirds of them had significantly elevated blood and/or urine mercury levels.
However, the fact that even a majority of users may suffer no evident adverse effects does not make this category
of products less dangerous to consumers. The developing brain is particularly sensitive to toxic effects, and the
chief public health concern about mercury exposure from fish consumption, for example, is the risk of prenatal
damage to the developing foetus. Mercury is also transferred from a mother to her nursing infant in breast milk.
Unfortunately, no research appears to have been done to assess the possible effects of long-term use of skin
lightening products by women of child bearing age on their children’s health. Such studies are urgently needed
