The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control NAFDAC says it will commence the enforcement against the production and sales of bleaching creams across the country.
Director General of the Agency Professor Mojisola Adeyeye stated this at the North East Zonal Media sensitisation workshop on dangers of bleaching creams and regulatory control in Maiduguri.
Representated by Director Chemical Evaluation of the Agency Dr. Leonard Omokpariola, the DG said similar engagements have been organised for journalists in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Ibadan, Jos, Port-Harcourt and Enugu.
She observed that the menace of bleaching creams has become a national health emergency as seventy seven percent of Nigerian women use skin-lightening creams.
Professor Adeyeye seek the collaboration of Journalists in sensitising members of the public and also be vanguards of the campaign against use of bleaching creams.
READ ALSO: NCS Seizes Contraband Worth Over 91.5 Million Naira in Kebbi
“Today’s sensitisation workshop is therefore a fulfilment of my promise to cascade it to the six geographical zones in the county as a deliberate strategy of mobilising, educating, sensitising and challenging Nigerian Health Journalists to play frontline role in our concerted efforts to eradicate the menace of bleaching creams ” DG NAFDAC stressed.
NAFDAC Zonal Director North East Dr Bukar Usman noted that aside from the use of bleaching creams, the Zonal office will also sensitize farmers and fruit vendors on the effects of unregulated use of chemicals.
Director Public Affairs of the Agency Dr Abubakar Jimoh said NAFDAC has so far trained about eight hundred journalists across the country on dangers of bleaching creams.
Correspondent Dauda Iliya reports that about fifty journalists from Borno and Yobe states participated in programme.