Prescription-only products like Botox are being administered by unqualified individuals as part of Ireland’s questionable beauty boom, it has been revealed.
Illegal Botox is also being distributed in hair salons, with product labels removed to avoid detection and prescription drugs being smuggled across the border from Northern Ireland.
And health experts say the dangerous practice creates an opportunity for people to endure “a huge number of risks,” including infections, abscesses and worse.
RTE Investigates’ bombshell report, to be aired tonight, shines a light on the ugly side of the beauty industry.
This shocking footage shows some hair salons using illegal Botox.
It also highlights how easy it is to buy prescription-only medicines and how people are bringing medicines across borders.
The country’s aesthetic industry is growing with record numbers seeking cosmetic procedures, with a variety of treatments from cosmetic to clinical gaining popularity.
He also noted how the lack of regulation in Ireland has allowed for a sudden increase in dangerous practices in this sector.
The aesthetic beauty industry covers everything from lip fillers to anti-wrinkle injections, thread lifts, dental procedures, and more.
Not only are reputable street clinics offering these treatments, but people on social media platforms are also offering these treatments without regulatory oversight.
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Beauty industry expert Nikki Dwyer said: ‘There is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the beauty industry actually is and the products used.
“One of the problems we are seeing in A&E clinics across the country is filler failures – fillers are not considered prescription drugs, they are medical devices.
“So anyone can use a medical device. I took a two-day online course on how to inject fillers and learned that I can legally inject fillers with insurance in this country. Masu.”
By law, Botox can only be administered by a physician, dentist, or certified nurse under the direction of a physician.
Dr Eisne Brenner, head of the Irish department at the British College of Aesthetic Medicine, said: “This is a prescription-only drug. The rules are clear in Ireland and anyone else is doing it illegally.”
On RTE tonight, an undercover detective revealed how an unlicensed and untrained individual was running a beauty shop from a bedroom in Dublin and advertising his business on Facebook.
And the manager said, “There’s no need to sterilize it, we use very small insulin needles with Botox.”
Dr Sana Askari, a member of the Aesthetic Complications Specialist Group, strongly condemned the claim, saying: “It just opens you up to so many risks: infections, abscesses. Of course, before the injections. It must be disinfected,” he warned.
Unlike in the UK, where it is illegal to administer Botox to anyone under 18, there are no age restrictions here.
Call for regulatory review
There are calls for a review of regulations in the field of non-surgical beauty services.
The Patient Safety (Licensing) Bill, introduced in 2016, was considered by the Oireachtas Health Committee in 2018, but eight years after its introduction, it has not passed the Dail.
As part of the investigation, RTE reporter Pamela Freier created a page on social media for customers to contact and set up a fake aesthetic clinic.
She completed an online academy where she learned 20 minutes of video instruction on how to administer Botox and received a certificate for “successfully” completing the course.
The documentary also reveals how tons of prescription products collected by hairdressers across the country are transported to Newry and mailed.
border botox
An undercover RTE Investigates reporter was told by a well-known supplier of unlicensed Botox from South Korea that he would “put it in a bag and drive across the border. There’s no police, no customs, nothing.”
He continued, “There are other girls who drive in from all over the country, from Clare, from Limerick, from Cork, and they all go get it.
“You see, there was a girl in Newry who would pick up the packages and go across the border to Dundalk and send the mail.The other facility in Newry sends all the packages. Please come and pick me up there.
“There’s a woman in Clare who sends her husband home because she buys so much from me. She buys between £4,000 and £5,000 worth of stuff every month. She lives in Dublin between 10 and 10. There are 12 girls.” [I supply]. ”
The Health Products Regulatory Authority has revealed that it has withheld more than 10,000 dosage units of medicines containing botulinum toxin, hyaluronidase or lidocaine in the past three years.
And the number of detentions of objects containing botulinum toxin will increase by more than 400% in 2023.
After a six-month investigation, RTE Investigates found a number of people were illegally handling drugs, selling them and preparing them for injection. Many of them were unlicensed Botox imported from South Korea.
The HPRA said it had “successfully prosecuted four counts of violating laws relating to the administration, distribution, sale and advertising of prescription drugs containing botulinum toxin.”
The president of the Irish Association of Plastic Surgeons has expressed disbelief and shock after watching an infiltration video of certain individuals in the country’s cosmetics sector and warned of the potential harm to the public.
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Professor Jack Kelly said: “This is actually more urgent than many people realize and more and more patients are at risk.
- RTE Investigates: Botox & Beauty at Any Cost airs tonight at 9.35pm on RTE One and the RTE Player.