The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in its bid to drastically reduce the harmful consumption of unwholesome food, falsified medical products, has taken the sensitisation drive to intensify and expand the scope of its informal and formal behaviour change communication strategies to reach vulnerable communities, especially at the grassroots.
Mojisola Adeyeye, the director-general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) at the flag-off of the NAFDAC sensitisation campaign on effects of unwholesome food, falsified medical products, harmful cosmetics, poor water and other substandard regulated products in Lagos State.
According to her, it is common knowledge that Nigeria has a greater prevalence share of the global problem of falsified medical products and unwholesome food. Hence, the dissemination of food and drug safety information is an important aspect of NAFDAC regulatory activity.
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“Public awareness campaign is one of the veritable regulatory mechanisms put in place by NAFDAC to promote and protect the health of our people. A well informed, sensitized and educated Citizenry is the bedrock of effective regulation,” said Adeyeye who was represented by Samson Adebayo, the director of Ports Inspection Directorate at NAFDAC.
She equally reassured the public that NAFDAC under her watch will not leave any stone unturned in efforts to rid the country of the menace of falsified medical products, unwholesome food, harmful cosmetics, poorly packaged water and other substandard regulated products.
The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic has aggravated the problem with the challenge posed by substandard and falsified Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs). According to Adeyeye, the sensitisation campaigns will therefore contribute significantly to the Federal Government’s efforts to inform, sensitize, educate and alert the public about the inherent dangers of intake and use of those regulated products.
Adeyeye, therefore, disclosed that the key focus areas of the sensitisation are dangers of buying medicines from hawkers; abuse of Codeine and self-medication especially among youth, and the dangerous effects of using kerosene tanker to load groundnut oil or other consumables.
Other areas are the dangerous practice of using potassium bromate to bake bread; use of Azo-dyes in palm oil which causes cancer; dangers of using Sniper to preserve any type of food or to keep flies away from meat; dangers of transfat and consumption of excessive oil; use of formalin on food and its associated health hazards; low level of exclusive breastfeeding practice by lactating mothers and its associated health hazards; dangers of wrong use of pesticides and insecticides; wrong use of chemicals and its hazardous effects, and the problem of antimicrobial resistance arising from animal meat.
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