The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has issued a warning to women who bleach their skins.
NAFDAC said that a study done by the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that 77 percent of Nigerian women use skin bleaching creams, the highest in Africa, compared to 59 percent in Togo, 35 percent in South Africa, and 27 percent in Senegal.
The NAFDAC Director-General, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, stated this during her opening address at the North-Central Zonal Sensitisation Workshop on the Dangers of Bleaching Creams and Regulatory Control, which was held in Jos, Plateau State.
She explained that the frightening statistic showed that the bleaching cream menace in Nigeria had become a national health emergency that necessitated a multifaceted regulatory approach.
According to her,
“part of the multi-pronged approach are consultative/sensitisation meetings such as this and heightened raids on distribution outlets of bleaching creams.â€