NAFDAC DG Moji Adeyeye
Bleaching Creams Menace Now National Health Emergency in Nigeria – NAFDAC
By Hassan John
Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Christiana Adeyeye, warns that statistics available clearly indicates the menace of bleaching creams in Nigeria has become a national health emergency.
This requires a multi-faced regulatory approach to tackle, she said.
Speaking while declaring open a one-day sensitization workshop for the Journalists in the North West geopolitical zone in Kano, on Thursday, the NAFDAC Director General said that a study conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2018) revealed that use of skin bleaching creams was prevalent among 77 percent of Nigerian women.
This was the highest in Africa compared to 59 percent in Togo, 35 per cent in South Africa and 27 percent women in Senegal, she said.
She, therefore, disclosed that NAFDAC is taking different approaches to reduce the menace to the barest minimum, noting that, “part of the multi-pronged approach are consultative/sensitization meetings such as this and heightened raids on distribution outlets of bleaching creams.”
Prof. Adeyeye however, warned that some harmful effects of bleaching creams include cancer, damage to vital organs of the body, skin irritation and allergy.
Other harmful effects, she said, include skin burn and rashes, wrinkles, premature skin ageing and prolong healing of wounds.
She called on journalists to assist NAFDAC in publicizing and disseminating knowledge acquired on the dangers of bleaching creams to the general public.
While giving a background of the media training which was done in collaboration with the Association of Nigeria Health Journalists, Prof. Adeyeye said: “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 sensitization 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 sensitization actions was the flag-off of Media Sensitization Workshops organized for Journalists in Abuja and Lagos.
“Today’s sensitization workshop is therefore, a fulfillment of my promise to cascade it to the six geo-political zones in the country as a deliberate strategy of mobilizing, educating, sensitizing, and challenging Nigerian Health Journalists to play frontline role in our concerted efforts to eradicate the menace of bleaching creams and needless waste of scarce resources in Nigeria.
“This sensitization workshop is a training the Trainers’ programme with the great expectation that participants will assume role of champions in the vanguard of the campaign against use of bleaching creams.”
She reiterated her resolve to work closely with the media to ensure that Nigerians are aware of dangers of falsified and other regulated products.
“It is pertinent to mention that during my recent press conference in Abuja announcing my second tenure in office, I promised to continue the transformative agenda of my first tenure but intensify and widen the scope of our publicity and public awareness campaigns.
“I wish to assure you that NAFDAC will henceforth constantly engage the Mass Media as we strive to bring down to the grassroots level positive impacts of our regulatory activities,” Prof. Adeyeye noted.
