Using bleaching cream can cause cancer, NAFDAC warns

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has issued a warning over the market’s overabundance of “dangerous” and “unregulated” bleaching products.

At a one-day workshop for media representatives in Enugu State on Wednesday, the agency issued a warning about the threat “The dangers of bleaching creams and regulatory controls.”

In a speech at the workshop’s opening, the agency’s Director General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, who was present in place of Dr. Patrick Omokpariola, Director of Chemical Evaluation and Research, said, “It is imperative for me to warn that some of the harmful effects of bleaching creams include cancer, damage to vital organs of the body, skin irritation and allergy, skin burn and rashes, wrinkles, premature skin aging, and prolong healing of wounds.

Adeyeye urged Nigerian women to be proud of their skin color, saying, “There’s no need to bleach.”

She said, “A World Health Organization 2018 study revealed that use of skin bleaching creams was prevalent among 77 per cent of Nigerian women which was highest in Africa compared to 59 per cent in Togo, 35 per cent in South Africa and 27 per cent women in Senegal.

“This scary statistic has shown that the menace of bleaching creams in Nigeria has become a national health emergency that requires a multi-faced regulatory approach. Part of the multi-pronged approach is consultative/sensitization meetings such as this and heightened raids on distribution outlets of bleaching creams.”

However, the DG pointed out that the sensitization workshop was in fulfillment of her promise to cascade it to the six geopolitical zones in the nation as a deliberate strategy to mobilize, educate, sensitize, and challenge Nigerian health journalists to play frontline role in their concerted efforts to eradicate the menace of bleaching creams and needless waste of scarce resources in Nigeria.