Anvisa says that the use of phenol remains prohibited in the country – 09/28/2024 – Balance and Health

Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) maintained the ban on the import, manufacture, manipulation, marketing, advertising and use of phenol-based products in aesthetic and health procedures.

The measure, published in the Official Gazette of the Union on Friday (27), has a preventive nature and is for an indefinite period. The agency also analyzes the available scientific evidence and information sent by professional associations and associations in the health sector, in response to the measures carried out by the agency.

Phenol is a caustic chemical used by dermatologists in deep chemical peels to treat wrinkles, skin blemishes and scars.

The ban on the use of the product had been enacted in June, but on a temporary basis.

The acid procedure gained attention when businessman Henrique da Silva Chagas, 27, died in an aesthetics clinic in Campo Belo, in the south of São Paulo, as a result of a cardiorespiratory arrest caused by phenol peeling.

Products that contain the phenol substance in their formulation, regularized with Anvisa and used in analytical or clinical analysis laboratories, remain authorized and outside the ban.

The list includes the drugs Dordent (Hearst Laboratories), auris-sedina; anise ointment, adrenaline and witch hazel composed of imescard (Laboratories Osório de Moraes), syrex (FDA Allergenic Farmacêutica), and the medical devices camphorated Paramonochlorophenol (from Maquira Indústria de Produtos Odontológicas and Lucipharma Indústria Farmacêutica), phenols (Far Diagnostics) and Paramonochlorophenol (Chemical and Pharmaceutical Biodynamics).

There is no phenol-based product regulated by Anvisa with indication for peeling procedures.