Those who haven’t read Dr Christopher Tufton’s column in the latest Sunday Observer should make a special effort to do so.

In the article, entitled ‘Frowning from browning: A crisis that’s more than skin deep’, the health and wellness minister explores the worrying skin bleaching trend that has taken hold here in recent decades.

Dr Tufton summarises well-established thinking that the use of chemicals, steroids, etc, to lighten the skin reflects an inadequacy of self-worth among people of dark to black complexion.

This newspaper — in this space — and others have long argued that degraded self-worth based on skin colour has direct lineage to the abominable system of slavery endured for close to 400 years by ancestors of people of African descent in Jamaica, the Caribbean, and wider Americas.

That inadequacy of self-worth has fed on itself down generations. That’s to the point where — to borrow from Dr Tufton’s analysis of social media responses — people bleach their skin to avoid the feeling that they are “less than”.

Older Jamaicans remember when the teachings of National Hero Marcus Garvey and others combined with the black power and allied movements of the 1960s and 70s nurtured overwhelming pride among people of African descent everywhere.

The current skin bleaching trend signals a most unfortunate relapse, in our view. But the problem goes deeper than the psychological negative.

Dr Tufton underlines an established fact that the substances used in skin bleaching can endanger health. Those risks include damage to kidneys, nervous system, irreversible damage to the skin, increased risk of skin cancer, and neurological complications.

We are ecstatic that as a senior Cabinet Minister Dr Tufton is recommending, and indeed appears to be committing to a role for the State in public education starting with schoolchildren.

Also, that “Government has a responsibility to lead sustained awareness campaigns and create a space for honest dialogue with those who bleach or are considering it. Within public health, guidance on skin bleaching will form part of our primary health care, life-stage approach, ensuring advice is given when symptoms are detected or questions arise…”

The health minister also advocates regulations to be strengthened to ensure import controls, enforcement, and clear warning labels.

We dare to suggest that the political Opposition will wholeheartedly support a public health campaign to counter skin bleaching. That’s largely based on our recollection of September 2024, when Opposition spokesman on health Dr Alfred Dawes — now also a Member of Parliament — told this newspaper of the urgent need for a State-funded education campaign against the practice.

In his capacity as a surgeon, Dr Dawes said then that he routinely refused to operate on those actively bleaching their skin because of inherent risks.

Referring to thinning of the skin caused by chemicals, he explained that “long-term bleaching destroys the dermis which is the thicker part of the skin… when you are closing the wounds, the stitches tear through the skin like tissue paper and, because of that, you have poor wound healing and poor cosmetic outcomes…”

This newspaper looks forward to a long overdue, sustained public health education campaign — with Government and Opposition in lockstep — to counter an extremely toxic and backward manifestation of our past.