□ Reporter Zhou Xiaopeng
Everyone has a heart for beauty. In order to wear beautiful earrings, many beauty lovers will choose to pierce the ears, that is, create a permanent hole in the specific part of the earlobe that can be worn in the earring. Many people think that piercing their ears is a common thing, and they can easily get it done by going to a street jewelry store or beauty salon, or even buying their own "ear gun".
However, the seemingly convenient ear piercing is actually a medical beauty project, far from being as simple as thought. Ear piercing requires strict implementation of disinfection and isolation measures, and the disinfection of instruments and body parts is very demanding, and irregular operation can easily cause human injuries such as ear infection and inflammation.
In recent years, the "beauty economy" has been heating up, and the medical beauty market has developed rapidly, but related problems have become increasingly prominent. Procuratorial organs in many places earnestly perform their duties in procuratorial public interest litigation, issuing procuratorial recommendations to relevant departments for illegal acts such as ear piercing and publishing medical advertisements, and urging coordinated performance of duties in accordance with law.
Identify beauty types and be wary of illegal practices
"After selecting the position of the earlobe, press repeatedly with mung beans, thin the earlobe in the selected position, string the cotton thread soaked in sesame oil with a needle, pierce the earlobe to leave the sesame oil thread in the earlobe, and the ear piercing will be ready."
Xiao Li, who lives in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, was successfully admitted to university last year, and she wanted to pierce her ears before school started, and her grandmother told her this "soil method" of piercing her ears after hearing about it. "I always felt that the 'soil method' was unreliable, and then I had my ear pierced in a nail shop in the mall, and after the beating, I found that there was actually no difference from the 'soil method'." Xiao Li said.
"The earlobe was a little red and swollen after the ear piercing, and the nail salon said at that time that it was a normal phenomenon and belonged to a personal physical problem." Xiao Li told the "Rule of Law Daily" reporter that she talked to her classmates about the experience of piercing her ears only to know that the equipment used by the nail shop to pierce her ears was the "ear gun" sold online.
The reporter searched on an online shopping platform and found that all kinds of "ear guns" and "ear piers" that claim to be "safe and easy to use, hypoallergenic, and anti-inflammatory" can be used for many times, generally tens of yuan, and only a few yuan at a time. Many online stores clearly indicate that the purchase of "ear guns" can be accompanied by advertising stickers printed with "professional ear piercing".
Xiao Li remembers that during the consultation process, she clearly raised concerns about whether ear piercings were safe and hygienic, and the nail shop staff swore that nail art and ear piercing belong to "life beauty", without any safety risks, only "medical beauty" related to plastic surgery "surgery" is risky, so she should not have any worries.
In fact, ear piercing belongs to medical cosmetology, and the essence of medical cosmetology is medical treatment, not beauty.
It is understood that life beauty refers to the use of non-medical means such as cosmetics, health products and non-medical devices to carry out skin and hair care and massage on the human body with maintenance or health care type non-invasive beauty care; Medical cosmetology refers to the use of surgery, drugs, medical devices and other invasive or invasive medical techniques to repair and reshape the appearance of people and the morphology of various parts of the human body.
Life and beauty institutions can carry out business activities after obtaining the "Public Place Hygiene License", while medical beauty institutions can only carry out practice activities after obtaining the "Medical Institution Practice License". Therefore, if a beauty institution engages in ear piercing, laser hair removal and other projects without obtaining the "Medical Institution Practice License", it is an illegal act.
Previously, "post-00s girls pierced their ears caused intracranial infection" has aroused social concern. An 18-year-old girl from Jinan, Shandong Province, suffered an ear infection after having her ear pierced in a shopping mall, with repeated inflammation, redness and swelling, and was sent to the hospital a few days later with high fever. It was originally just a small act of beauty, but it brought life danger.
Perform procuratorial duties to regulate the medical beauty market
In beauty services, all technical operations that want to break the skin and invade the human body belong to the field of medical beauty. Whether the relevant operations are standardized and whether the medical devices used are safe are directly related to the personal safety of consumers.
"There are many services on the market that claim 'sterile ear piercing' and 'safe ear piercing', but in beauty institutions that engage in ear piercing without relevant qualifications, hygiene and safety are not guaranteed at all." Shi Baozhe, deputy director of the Fourth Procuratorate Department of the Chang'an District People's Procuratorate in Shijiazhuang, introduced that if the ear piercing operation is not standardized, it is easy to cause ear infection and inflammation, which may cause keloids, soft tissue necrosis of the ear, deformation of the ear, and some may even cause AIDS, hepatitis B, syphilis and other viral infections, endangering human health.
Not long ago, in order to standardize and promote the healthy and orderly development of the medical beauty industry, the Fourth Procuratorate Department of the Chang'an District Procuratorate assigned personnel to carry out an unannounced investigation, inspected 117 jewelry stores, nail shops, beauty salons and barbershops in commercial blocks in the jurisdiction, and found that some stores provided customers with medical beauty services such as ear piercing, as well as problems such as unsterilized medical equipment, and fixed relevant evidence in accordance with the law.
"After investigation, these stores have not obtained the qualification of "Medical Institution Practice License", according to the "Catalogue of Graded Management of Medical Cosmetology Projects", ear piercing is a first-level project of cosmetic surgery, and should be carried out in a first-level general hospital and outpatient department with a medical cosmetology department or plastic surgery, or a clinic with a medical cosmetology department." In response to the problems found, the Chang'an District Procuratorate informed the health supervision department of the investigation.
At the same time, the Chang'an District Procuratorate issued a pre-litigation procuratorial recommendation for administrative public interest litigation to the administrative organ with regulatory duties, requiring the health regulatory department to comprehensively investigate and rectify, investigate and deal with the illegal provision of medical beauty services by nail shops, jewelry shops and beauty salons involved in the case in accordance with the law, and strengthen supervision measures on issues such as irregular operation of medical beauty services in their jurisdiction.
After receiving the procuratorial proposal, the relevant administrative law enforcement department of Chang'an District of Shijiazhuang said that it would set up a special investigation team according to the content of the procuratorial proposal to investigate and deal with the illegal conduct of illegal medical beauty projects and illegal publication of medical advertisements by relevant stores, so as to protect the public's health and life safety. At the same time, it will also increase the publicity of medical cosmetology-related laws and regulations and science popularization.
Shi Baozhe said that the procuratorate will continue to follow up, strengthen the connection and cooperation with administrative law enforcement departments, coordinate the performance of duties, urge the improvement of law enforcement supervision mechanisms, and work together to rectify and regulate the order of the medical service market.
Raise health awareness and focus on risk prevention
Although the state has long promulgated laws and regulations such as the Measures for the Administration of Medical Cosmetology Services and the Guidelines for the Enforcement of Medical Cosmetology Advertisements, chaos in the medical cosmetology market still occurs from time to time under the low cost of violation and insufficient supervision. Compared with plastic surgery and other items, consumers do not have enough understanding and vigilance about the medical attributes of ear piercing, laser hair removal and other items.
On April 4, the Supreme People's Procuratorate released six typical cases of procuratorial organs punishing illegal crimes in the field of medical cosmetology in accordance with the law. The cases focus on revealing the main criminal methods in the field of medical cosmetology, revealing the common risks and hidden dangers of consumers choosing medical cosmetology, and warning consumers to rationally choose medical cosmetology services.
Statistics show that since September 2022, procuratorial organs across the country have approved the arrest of 9 people in 89 cases involving medical cosmetology crimes, and prosecuted 306 people in 129 cases; A total of 381 public interest litigation cases in this field were filed; 838 pre-litigation procuratorial recommendations for administrative public interest litigation were issued to administrative organs; A total of 465 civil public interest lawsuits (including criminal incidental civil public interest lawsuits) were filed, of which 24 filed claims for punitive damages.
"In terms of law popularization and publicity, it is necessary to guide relevant market entities to establish a sense of law-abiding operation and consciously standardize business behavior; It is also necessary to enable consumers to distinguish between life beauty and medical beauty, do a good job in screening, and prevent risks. Shi Baozhe said.
Shi Baozhe reminds that everyone is the first responsible person for their own health, it is necessary to follow the concept of "safety first, beauty second", beauty lovers must go to formal institutions to accept medical cosmetology, in addition to the institution's "medical institution practice license", when choosing a cosmetic plastic doctor, you should also pay attention to the "three certificates", that is, physician qualification certificate, medical practitioner certificate and medical beauty attending doctor certificate, do not make hasty decisions because of credulous advertising, in order to prevent damage to their own health rights and interests. At the same time, they should also keep medical records, payment vouchers, contract agreements and other materials to protect their legitimate rights and interests in the event of disputes or medical accidents. (Rule of Law Daily)