The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has tasked media officers to assist in disseminating to Nigerians the dangers associated with bleaching creams.

The acting Director-General of the agency, Dr. Monica Eimunjeze, made the plea at the flag-off of a nationwide media sensitization workshop on the dangers of bleaching creams and regulatory controls.

The workshop was basically organized for journalists covering the health sector.

The acting D-G cautioned Nigerians saying that there were so many bleaching creams in the market that are not regulated by the agency, and so, could cause harm to the body.

“There are some of the bleaching creams that have also gone through the regulatory process on the list of license items that are available in the record of the agency.

“There are those who are clandenstally in the market in which the agency is yet to effect the regulatory control, and Nigerians must be careful about those creams.

“We see dangers inherent in using those creams products that are not in our regulatory process.

“So, we are collaborating with health journalists to help us increase awareness of the products that have not gone through the regulatory process on the impact these could have on their health.

“When you use a product that has chemicals that could affect the body in many ways or systemically cause a reaction on the skin and could cause affection on the organ, there are many consequences such as kidney failure, liver damage from an accumulation of toxic chemicals within the system.

“So, we want people to be aware of possibilities and try to modify their behavior.”

According to her, though people have the right to make choices, they need to make informed choices that will guide them and not the ones that will hurt them.

Eimunjeze stated that there was a need for reasonable Nigerians, particularly social scientists, to examine and look at the reasons why people or why some men go for light-complexioned women.

According to her, this notion comes along with the way people perceive themselves to make them more “receivable or acceptable” in society.

She stated that the examination was necessary in order to make the people who bleach to re-orientate themselves to the realities of life.

She disclosed that the bleaching problem was not peculiar to Nigeria alone, but a global issue that needed to be discussed.

She condemned the idea of bleaching totally.

However, she said there were approved creams formulated to suit one’s peculiar complexion and that this was more acceptable than bleaching the body.

Eimunjeze stated that a lot of creams are produced that many don’t know the formulation knowledge in which the creams were made, adding that such creams are toxic to the body.

She vowed that the agency would not allow that to continue to happen, saying that NAFDAC had a clear knowledge of the formulation of those under the agency’s regulation.

The D-G also talked about organic products which are perceived as natural, saying that not all organic products were good for the body they were not under regulation.

She called on people to begin to make choices that would be more favorable to them.