The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has said the agency will warns Nigerians on danger of using bleaching cream.
The agency will embark on a nationwide tour to warn of the dangers inherent in the usage of bleaching creams.
The Acting Director General of the Agency, Dr. Monica Eimunjeze urged the Media to champion the campaign against the skin bleaching pandemic.
Eimunjeze while Speaking in Lagos during a sensitisation workshop for the Media on the dangers of bleaching cream, and regulatory controls said that media should provide Nigerians with the right information to make the right decision about safeguarding their health.
She said, “There are those who are clandestinely in the market in which the Agency is yet to effect the regulatory control and consumers must be very careful about these creams.”
“We will be moving to full-time enforcement so we have Nigerians on notice. We have had some operations in the past, so we are going to look very closely again.When the full-time enforcement starts, everybody will understand the reason we are doing what we are doing. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse.”
“We see dangers inherent in using these cream products that are not in our regulatory process, so we are collaborating with health journalists to help us increase awareness on the products that have not gone through the regulatory process on the impacts these could have on their health.”
She noted that the use of bleaching creams is not only endemic in Nigeria but is global.
“Most people do not do skincare when you do skincare you protect your skin, you use sunscreen, you exfoliate which is not bad but when you use harmful chemicals that are dangerous to the layers of the skin and you go to the sun without protection, you begin to burn,” she added.