…Agency Takes War Against Usage To Southeast
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has explained that the reason it is not taking the option of banning the importation of bleaching cream was to avoid creating new business for smugglers.
The agency said banning the importation now might not stop the usage, adding that it is rather using public sensitisation and enlightenment to wage war against the use of bleaching cream across the country.
NAFDAC’s deputy director in charge of regulation, Pharm. Linda Halim, who stated this in her lecture at the Southeast Media Sensitisation Workshop on Dangers of Bleaching Creams and Regulatory Controls, said the intention of the sensitization was to enlighten Nigerians on the dangers of using bleaching cream with a view to stop patronizing them.
“Banning importation of bleaching creams won’t stop the usage. Rather, it will open up a huge business for smugglers. But we want Nigerians to understand the dangers and on their own, stop patronizing the sellers.
“We won’t have any need banning the importation if Nigerians understand the dangers and stop using it. Through this way, the importers will leave the business. This is the reason we are holding sensitization with the media”, Halim said.
The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Moji Adeyeye, in her address, urged journalists and entertainers within the Southeast geopolitical zone to join the agency in its current war against the use of bleaching cream.
Adeyeye, who was represented by the Director of Chemical Evaluation and Research, Dr Leonard Omokpariola, noted that it was an imperative to warn Nigerians to the harmful effects of bleaching creams including cancer and damage to organs.
According to her, other dangers are skin irritation and allergy, skin burn and rashes, wrinkles, premature skin ageing and prolonged healing of wounds.
“Last year, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, acting on the resolutions of the Senate wrote to NAFDAC stressing the need to take stringent regulatory actions to stem the dangerous tide of rampant and pervasive cases of Nigerians using bleaching creams.
“We immediately took some decisive steps such as sensitisation of the public through different media outlets, enforcement through intelligence and raids in trade fair complexes that have resulted in large seizures and destruction of violative products.
“One of such sensitisation actions was the flag-off of Media Sensitization Workshops organised for journalists in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Ibadan, Port-Harcourt and today in Enugu.
“Today’s sensitisation workshop is therefore a fulfillment of my promise to cascade it to the six geo-political zones in the country.
“This is a deliberate strategy of mobilising, educating, sensitising, and challenging Nigerian Health Journalists to play a frontline role in our concerted efforts to eradicate the menace of bleaching creams and needless waste of scarce resources in Nigeria,” he said.
