By Fatima Zahra Muhammad
ASHENEWS reports that the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has declared the prevalence of bleaching cream among Nigerians as a national emergency.
Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the Director General of the agency, stated this on Thursday in Abuja during a media sensitization workshop on the dangers of bleaching creams and regulatory controls.
Adeyeye said that the agency has since received a memo from the federal government to urgently address the menace due to its implication on the health of users.
“In 2022 the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, wrote to NAFDAC stressing the need to take stringent regulatory action against the rampant cases of some Nigerians using bleaching creams.
“We immediately took action and made a large seizure and destruction of violating products in the trade fair.
”Bleaching creams damage vital organs in the body, skin irritation, allergy, skin burn, rashes, wrinkles, and prolong the healing of wounds.
According to her, the World Health Organisation in 2018 ranked Nigeria as the country with the highest number of bleaching cream users in Africa.
”This scary statistics has shown that the menace of bleaching creams in Nigeria has become a national health emergency that requires a multi-faceted regulatory approach,” she said.
The workshop, organized for the Association of Nigeria Health Journalists seeks to engage the mass media in creating awareness at the grass root level.
