THE
National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says many
skin whitening products in the market can cause skin cancer and kidney failure.
The
Agency’s Director General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, gave the warning in an
interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.
“In
Nigeria, we have a lot of use of dangerous chemicals.
“From
Glutathione injection to other chemicals, the reason why we are so concerned
about Glutathione is that it can cause skin cancer.
“It can
cause kidney dysfunction and failure and this is what young people don’t know.
“First,
philosophically I don’t know why somebody wants to bleach their skin, you
should be proud of your colour because, when you cross that threshold of
desiring to be lighter, problems are associated with it.”
Adeyeye
said the agency’s Investigation and Enforcement Directorate would continue its
surveillance to raid stores of illegal and unregistered whitening chemicals.
On drug
abuse, the director general cautioned against the use of illicit drugs and an
overdose of licit ones.
“ On
drug abuse, you can use a drug rightly but you can use the same drug illicitly;
take Codeine, for example, Codeine is an anti-toxin, it is an expectorant and
that is the medical use.
“But,
if you then use more than what you should of Codeine, it becomes illicit.
“So,
NAFDAC has to do its job by looking at it from the illicit point of view now
being abused.
“Take,
for example, Tramadol; the medical use of Tramadol is at the strength of 50 and
100 milligrams, but those that come into the country are 500 milligrams that
can fry anybody’s brain.
“When
they are being shipped in, most times they come with other licit drugs that are
not registered.
“So, we
have to impound.”
She
urged all stakeholders to collaborate with the agency to tighten the country’s
borders to end the smuggling and use of illegal drugs.
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