Indiscriminate Use Of Bleaching Cosmetics Causes Cancer, Organ Damage, NAFDAC Warns
Category:
Health Matters
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control
(NAFDAC) has warned Nigerians against using too much bleaching cosmetics,
saying it could lead to skin cancer.
The agency’s media consultant, Olusayo Akintola, in a statement,
disclosed that the director-general of the agency, Mojisola Adeyeye, gave the
warning over the weekend at the brainstorming session of a two-day top
management meeting of the agency in Lagos.
Ms Adeyeye said an
abusive use of cosmetics could even lead to internal damage to body organs and
cause death.
She expressed shock at the proliferation of
beauticians engaged in formulating unauthorized chemicals with the intention
of applying them on their unsuspecting clients.
According to the
NAFDAC boss, most SPA outlets in the nation’s cosmopolitan cities are culpable
of the unhealthy practice of mixing chemicals and natural products like
pawpaw, carrot and others to make creams for clients’ use.
READ: Lady Gets Sacked For Bleaching Her Skin
Ms Adeyeye said the formulation was packaged, labelled, and sold online to
clients, adding that SPA owners have gone further to influence some clinics
with medical doctors joining to carry out these nefarious activities.
She
said the practice had advanced to the extent that vitamin C infusion and
glutathione were injected into the substances and applied on clients.
The NAFDAC boss explained further that the challenge in enforcing
the agency’s safety regulations on bleaching agents, SPAs and other beauty
parlors was that the products were prepared extemporaneously and covertly for
individual clients.
She disclosed that most of the products used
in the mixture were smuggled into the country and unregistered, citing
formulations containing Kojic Acid and hydroquinone above their permissible
substance limits.
According to her, all these products which have
substances above their permissible limits are at risk of causing harm, and it
is for the same safety reason that the use of mercury is banned in cosmetics.
“We don’t just ban products because they are bleaching agents but
are prohibited because of safety issues surrounding particular ingredients in
the products as they could cause skin cancer and damage the liver and
kidney.
“The lightening of skin today can be cancer tomorrow, many
of the importers smuggle the products into the country under the guise of
Global listing to bypass NAFDAC inspection,” she said.
Ms Adeyeye
decried that bleaching has become pandemic among women, noting that the agency
would clamp down on sellers of unauthorized products.
“Investigation and Enforcement Directorate of NAFDAC has been
given the directive to apprehend merchants of these dangerous products and
bring them to book, ” she stressed.
She, therefore, emphasized
that the agency was not against cosmetics, but they must be regulated and
confirmed safe for human use.
(NAN)
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