RTÉ investigates illegal Botox use with links to Carlow

An RTÉ investigates programme tonight will shed light on a Carlow link to illegal Botox industry in Ireland. There has been an increase of over 400% in Botox products seized by Ireland's Health Products Regulatory Authority in 2023.

Links to Dublin, Clare, Westmeath, Cork, Armagh and Limerick will also be uncovered on tonight's show.

RTÉ Investigates reveals how prescription only products like Botox are being administered by unqualified individuals, how Botox is illegally moved through hair salons, how easy it is to buy prescription only medications while being advised to change the labels to avoid detection, and how prescription medications are coming across the border from Northern Ireland, in a revealing documentary to be broadcast this Monday night on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.

The aesthetics industry in Ireland is booming, with record numbers of people seeking cosmetic procedures. Lots of different treatments ranging from the cosmetic to the clinical have grown in popularity, and the lack of regulation in Ireland has allowed the industry to explode.

The aesthetic beauty industry in Ireland covers everything from lip fillers to anti-wrinkle injections, from thread-lifts to teeth procedures, and much more. Many of these treatments are being offered not just by reputable street clinics, but also by individuals on social media, away from the glare of any regulation. 

Nikki Dwyer, beauty industry expert: "There is a fundamental misunderstanding about what the actual aesthetics industry is and about the products that are being used. One of the problems that present in A&E's clinics around the country is botched filler. Filler is not considered to be a prescription drug. It's a medical device. So anybody can use a medical device. I can go and do a two-day online course on how to inject fillers and I can get insured and legally inject fillers in this country."

By law however only a doctor, dentist or registered nurse under direction of a medical doctor can currently administer Botox. Dr Eithne Brenner, Chairperson of the Irish Faculty of the British College of Aesthetic Medicine told RTÉ: "This is a prescription only medicine. In Ireland the rules are clear. And anyone else is acting illegally."

Botox is a registered brand name but it is now such a popular worldwide product that it has become a colloquial term for all products containing botulinum toxin. Botox is licensed for use in Ireland, the products RTÉ Investigates discovered on many occasions in the course of their investigation were not licensed for use here.

Undercover filming featured in tonight's documentary reveals how one unlicensed and unqualified individual is running a beauty salon from the bedroom of her Dublin apartment and is advertising via Facebook, telling RTÉ Investigates’ undercover reporter: "you don’t need to sterilise, with Botox I'm using a very small insulin needle."

Dr Sana Askary, a member of the Aesthetics Complications Expert group strongly refutes this: "That's just opening up you up for so many risks. Infection, abscess. Of course, you have to sterilise before an injection."

Unlike England where it’s illegal to administer Botox to under 18s, in Ireland there’s no regulation to restrict the age anyone can receive Botox. It is up to a qualified Doctor to use their discretion. There have been calls to urgently review the regulation in the provision of non-surgical cosmetic services. A Patient Safety (licensing) Bill was introduced in 2016 and went through an Oireachtas Health committee in 2018. The bill aims to introduce a licencing requirement for individuals practicing aesthetics medicine and that includes many cosmetic procedures. But eight years after the bill’s introduction it still hasn’t come through the Dail. 

As part of research for this investigation, RTÉ reporter Pamela Fraher set up a fake aesthetic clinic, creating a social media page ready for clients to contact. Several competitors on their social media sites referenced an online academy called LFK, Lips for Kiss. On this website you can buy video training, including a 20-minute video with instructions on how to administer Botox. After watching the video, the RTÉ reporter was sent a certificate to show she had ‘successfully completed the course Botox by ‘Lips for Kiss’.

Tonight's RTÉ Investigates documentary will also show how mass volumes of prescription products, including Botox-type products are being flown and posted to Newry and collected by beauticians all over Ireland. One major supplier selling large quantities of unlicenced Botox from Korea named in tonight's programme, tells  the undercover RTÉ Investigates reporter: "You put them in your bag, drive across the border. No police, no customs, no nothing." 

He goes on to say: "I have other girls who drive all the way from Clare, from Limerick, from Cork. All over the country. And they all go pick it up. See, the thing is, I used to have a girl in Newry who used to pick it up, then go across the border to Dundalk and then post. The other facility I have in Newry where I send all of my parcels, and all get picked up there. I have a lady in Clare, she sends the husband up because she is buying such a lot from me. She's buying like £4,000-£5,000 pounds worth of stuff every month. There's about 10-12 girls in Dublin (I supply)."

The Health Products Regulatory Authority is the regulator tasked with policing this area. In the past three years alone, the HPRA told RTÉ Investigates it has detained more than 10,000 dosage units of medicines containing botulinum toxin, hyaluronidase or lidocaine as part of its enforcement activities in monitoring the supply chain. In 2023 specifically, the HPRA increased its detentions of botulinum toxin products by more than 400%

During the course of a six-month investigation, RTÉ Investigates discovered large numbers of people handling, selling and prepared to inject this medication illegally, much of this product is unlicenced Botox coming from Korea. In the past three years the HPRA say they "have taken four successful prosecutions for breaches of legislation pertaining to the administering, distributing, selling or advertising of prescription medicines containing botulinum toxin."

The President of the Irish Association of Plastic Surgeons has warned of a risk to members of the public and said he is “shocked” and “stunned” after viewing undercover footage of the activities of some people working in the beauty industry in Ireland. Professor Jack Kelly told RTÉ Investigates: “This is actually more urgent than many people realise and more and more patients are being put at risk.”

Watch RTÉ Investigates: Botox & Beauty at Any Costs, Monday 4th March at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and RTE Player.  

Following on from the revelations of unsafe practices in the beauty industry in Ireland, RTÉ Player presents an accompanying discussion piece to further consider some of the documentary’s biggest talking points and discoveries. The Reaction: Botox & Beauty at Any Cost will be available to stream on RTÉ Player from 10.30pm on Monday 4th March.

Content Creator Sam Kelly, Aesthetic Doctor Dr Sarah Conway and Clinical Psychologist Dr Tara Logan Buckley discuss the rise of Botox and other cosmetic procedures in Ireland, particularly with young people in their 20’s.

As someone working in the industry, Dr Sarah Conway was shocked to discover that they are “injecting people with a product that’s not licensed to use in Ireland... as soon as something goes wrong you have absolutely no protection”.