For centuries, human beings have endangered body and mind in pursuit of the toxic fallacy that pale skin represents the highest form of beauty.
The often-deadly bleaching agent white lead was a perennial favorite in Europe from the time of the Ancient Greeks. Enslaved Africans in British colonies in the 18th century used caustic cashew oil to achieve a paler complexion. The Victorian English, meanwhile, favored arsenic wafers. And recent evidence suggests the Chinese, too, were using lead in cosmetics as far back as 800 BCE.
