By Andy Asemota
The Senate has tasked the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to rise up to its duty of regulating importation, formulation and sale of cosmetics in Nigeria, to prevent the side effects of the harmful substances.
The resolution followed a motion by Senator Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central, APC) on the need for the agency to move swiftly to regulate the proliferation of harmful drugs by small and medium enterprises and businesses, whose stock in trade is the formulation of beauty products.
The Upper Chamber, presided over by the Senate President, Ahemd Lawan, posited that unless the market was regulated and world standards for toxicity and safety adhered to, the health of a lot of citizens would be put at risk.
The Senate equally mandated NAFDAC to embark on sensitization and awareness campaign on the ills of the harmful substances in some cosmetics that had been linked to skin damage, kidney failure, liver failure, breathing problems, poor wound healing, scars and skin cancer among others.
Presenting the lead submission on the motion, Tinubu expressed shock over video circulating since December 2019 of a woman who was supposedly having the top layer of her skin peeled off in what appeared to be lightening procedure at the business place of a cosmetics formulator/vendor.
