“Creams are good to be used to elevate the body texture but, currently, we have observed another wave of colonialisation where skin lightening cream has been impregnated with mercury which has been found to be very dangerous chemical, and that is why the global community has banned mercury use in products under the Minamata Convention on Mercury.”
Dr. Leslie Adogame, Executive Director, Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development (SRADev Nigeria), who made known in his welcome remarks during a One-Day Stakeholders’ Sectoral Workshop on Building Capacity towards strengthening enforcement of phasing out Mercury Skin-Lightening Products (SLPs) in Lagos, noted that, despite the efforts put in place by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), one of the major challenges in nipping this ugly trend in the bud is the e-commerce platforms which are faceless and untraceable.
Dr. Adogame said: “Despite the effort of NAFDAC, people still continue to use mercury in skin lightening creams which takes off the melanie component of the skin thereby exposing the skin to a lot and that is why you see someone who is naturally dark, who is supposed to be proud of being black will tend to clean it up with a dangerous chemicals and destroy the melanie, the mercury destroys the skin into the blood tissues leading to dangerous health problems like reproductive health problems, neurological problems, still births and so many problems associated with mercury, which is a major killer.
“This campaign is essentially being escalated from global to local, we found out that NAFDAC, having done a good job when we started the campaign since 2014, has taken steps by regulating a zero tolerance on mercury, they have taken cosmetics off the shelves of supermarkets, but recently we found a new traits of e-commerce platforms selling cosmetics laden with mercury.
“In the last four to five years, we’ve been sampling cosmetics online by buying from the likes of Jìjì, Jumia, Konga and so on, and we found out that the story has not changed. This companies continue to add mercury to creams, and they come through these online platforms and a lot of our people do not know, all in the name of wanting to look beautiful; most women are unaware that they are destroying their skins.
“Research has shown that pregnant women who use these skin lightening creams end up having children with deformity. The effect is colossal but how many people are aware of this? That is why we are taking this message to everybody who use skin lightening creams. But, first, we want to introduce a regulatory arm in response to the subject matter by involving all necessary government agencies in ensuring that there is a zero tolerance.
“Unfortunately, we cannot trace the locations of most of these e-commerce platforms especially Konga and Jiji, it’s only Jumia that we know their locations, so how do we regulate these people?”
In his remarks, Dr. Hotton J. Anthony, representing the Director General of NAFDAC, commended SRADev Nigeria for its work in this regard.
He laid emphasis on the area and purview that concerns the regulations with NAFDAC, emphasis on Article 3 and 4, adding that Article 3 of the Minamata Convention has to do with the trade of mercury in which “we have been empowered by law to regulate that sector statutorily and also Article 4 that talks about the mercury added products where we have cosmetics as one of them.”
Anthony continued: “NAFDAC is empowered by law LFN 2004 to regulate and to control, importation and exportation, sales, use and distribution of food, drugs, cosmetics, chemicals and other regulated products, on these premises we drew out our regulations, guidelines and procedures in carrying out these functions.
“NAFDAC has put a zero tolerance on all cosmetic products since 2002, even before the Minamata Convention.
“I can tell you for a fact that those are clandestine activities being scooped into the country via online means of sales and we all know that this is global menace, the sales of unregistered products with mercury are fake products.
“Apart from that, in the last 10 years no company or individual applied to get mercury for any production or any personal use that was granted because, in zero tolerance, no permit will be issued for such product,” he concluded.
Ahmed Bah Ibrahim, representing the Federal Ministry of Environment, in his submission noted that, “over the years, the Federal Ministry of Environment has been making concerted efforts in collaborating with key stakeholders of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as well as private sectors, NGOs, academia and other key relevant institutions.
“The National Action Plan for the phase out of mercury in Skin-Lightening Products (SLPs) was developed and validated by stakeholders in April this year alongside other national action plans,” he stated.
The event had participants from stakeholders such as the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Lagos State Ministry of Environment (LSMoE), Lagos State Ministry of Health (LSMoH), Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), and National Orientation Agency (NOA), among others.
The project, titled: “Towards Strengthening Enforcement of Phasing Out Mercury Added Products (MAPs) in Nigeria with Focus in Skin-Lightening Products (SLPs)”, was supported by European Environmental Bureau (EEB) in Belgium.
By Ajibola Adedoye
