NAFDAC Warns On Use Of Skin Lightening Creams …… As Nigeria Tops In Use Of Whitening Cosmetics

The National Agency for Foods and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned the public to desist from the use of skin whitening creams due to its dangerous effects on the body and internal organs.
The agency gave the warning during a one-day workshop organised for the media, shops and supermarkets outlets operators in South-South region at Port Harcourt on Monday, as it revealed that statistics have shown that Nigeria tops in Africa in the use of skin toning complexion creams.
Zonal Director of NAFDAC Chike Obiano said the workshop is a mandate from the National Assembly to enlighten the public on the dangers of skin whitening creams, which use has taken huge proportion among the population.
Obiano said already the agency has taken the campaign up North and that the southern part is being covered since it will give feedback to the National Assembly.
He identified the media and shop owners as major stakeholders in the campaign to check the menace posed by the use of skin whitening creams, while emphasising the need for all to join in the crusade.
In an “Overview of Skin Bleaching : The NAFDAC Perspective”, Deputy Director of the agency, Anto Ebele attributed the use of bleaching creams to need for social acceptance, especially by the women folk, explaining that the habit is also gradually adopted by the men who feel that skin colour toning is status symbol.
Ordinarily she explained that skin toning cosmetics are meant to enhance appearance, but that outright bleaching done to remove the natural melanin common in black people is dangerous as it penetrates the body and sometimes go to damage key organs like kidney and liver.
Ebele noted that the current practice by those who engage in the habit is that the creams are not usually prescribed by health professional, and that ingredients used in producing such creams may be not be fully labeled thus putting the user at risk.
She maintained that most ingredients in lightening creams as regulated by NAFDAC are usually abused by producers, while warning that mercury is out rightly banned and only two per cent of hydroquinone is allowed to be used producing such cosmetics.
“Even when they claim that the ingredients are 100 per cent organic, it’s not safe most of the time”, Ebele stressed.

Stories by Kevin Nengia