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The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned against using unapproved cosmetic products because the danger is much more than their usefulness.
The agency stated this during a one-day workshop organized for media stakeholders on Wednesday in Enugu.
NAFDAC warns about the danger of bleaching cream in a statement titled, “The dangers of bleaching creams and regulatory controls.”
Delivering an address at the flag-off of the workshop, the Director General of the agency, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, who was represented by the Director of Chemical Evaluation and Research, Dr. Patrick Omokpariola, stated, “I must warn that some of the harmful effects of bleaching creams include cancer, damage to vital organs of the body, skin irritation and allergy, skin burn and rashes, wrinkles, premature skin aging and prolong the healing of wounds.
Adeyeye urged Nigerian women to be proud of their skin colour, saying, “There’s no need to bleach.”
She also said, “A World Health Organisation 2018 study revealed that use of skin bleaching creams was prevalent among 77 per cent of Nigerian women which was highest in Africa compared to 59 per cent in Togo, 35 per cent in South Africa and 27 per cent women in Senegal.
“This scary statistic has shown that the menace of bleaching creams in Nigeria has become a national health emergency that requires a multi-faced regulatory approach. Part of the multi-pronged approach is consultative/sensitization meetings such as this and heightened raids on distribution outlets of bleaching creams.” Mojisola said.
The DG, however, stated that the sensitisation workshop was in fulfilment of her promise to cascade it to the six geo-political zones in the country as a deliberate strategy of mobilising, educating, sensitising, and challenging Nigerian Health journalists to play a frontline role in their concerted efforts to eradicate the menace of bleaching creams and needless waste of scarce resources in Nigeria.
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