HUNDREDS, possibly thousands, of women are suffering permanent skin damage at the hands of untrained beauty therapists who are operating laser and intense pulsed light machines.
In the worst cases, therapists are misdiagnosing melanomas as pigmentation and treating them with laser or IPL, with potentially fatal consequences.
There is no legislation in NSW regulating these devices, which are used for skin blemishes and hair removal.
Anyone can buy a machine and set up business, with the result that women are suffering scars, burns and pigment loss.
"Every street corner's got an IPL now," says Gabrielle Caswell from the Cosmetic Physicians Society of Australasia.
"You could be a bricklayer and you could buy a laser in NSW."
Although there are no statistics - because many women are too embarrassed to come forward - Dr Caswell says the problem is widespread because women believe their therapist is properly trained.
"I've had a woman sit and cry in front of me and say, 'I'm so stupid, I should have known better', but why should she have known better?" Dr Caswell says.
"These devices hit our shores and ran out the door before anybody realised what was going on."
When 55-year-old Pia told her beauty therapist that an IPL treatment on her chest was painful, the therapist asked her if she was hormonal. Once the treatment was over and the therapist realised that Pia had been burnt, she advised her not to see a doctor, telling her to sit in front of an air conditioner.
After a night of excruciating pain, Pia did visit a doctor. She was told she had suffered severe burns. She could not bear any fabric on her chest for a month, she could not work and could not even wear a seat belt. "It was quite devastating because I thought it was really ugly and I thought people were staring at my chest rather than my face," she says.
James Walter, from the Neutral Bay Laser and Dermatology Clinic, has been documenting similar cases for four years.
He has recorded 200 cases but suspects thousands of incidents go unreported. "There are lots and lots of cases. As dermatologists we see them after they've been damaged," says Dr Walter.
The problem, he says, is mainly with IPL. While a laser has one wavelength, the pulsed light machines have a spectrum of varying light energies, and require a skilled technician to operate. Women with dark and olive skin are at risk of scarring and loss of pigment as well as blistering, if the operator has not been sufficiently trained.
"Beauty therapists only get half an hour of training on average on how to use IPL, so they have no idea what they're doing," says Dr Walter.
There are no federal regulations and only Western Australia and Tasmania regulate the industry. Queensland regulates lasers but not IPL.
NSW Health says regulation is the responsibility of the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change. But that department says it is waiting to link into a federal framework expected to be drawn up by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency.