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FDA sued to overturn ban on sale of bleaching products
According to the Cosmetics association, the ban was unfair, unreasonable and unconstitutional.
A writ of summons and statement of claim served on the two state institutions is challenging the legitimacy of the ban.
According to the association, the ban was unfair, unreasonable and unconstitutional.
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In August last year, the FDA has banned the sale of products that contain a chemical mostly found in body bleaching creams.
The increase in the sale of such creams has become a public health concern with many health practitioners warning against their use.
Acting Chief Executive of the Food and Drugs Authority, Mimi Darko said they were also using laboratory tests to identify such creams.
"The bleaching agent in most bleaching creams is hydroquinone and the Ghana standard now is, there should be zero percent hydroquinone in bleaching creams and the Food and Drugs Board, being the regulatory authority, has taken that standard and we are now implementing it. So since January this year [2017], we don’t register a product that has hydroquinone in the product."
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But the Cosmetic association seeking to overturn the ban said its members have for years been importing skin care products containing hydroquinone, the chemical which prompted the ban, through the ports with approval from the two institutions after paying for the appropriate fees and charges.
It also argued that its members had imported, marketed and sold skin care and beauty products containing the banned chemical without any objections all these years and could not understand the motive behind the ban last year.
"The plaintiff is an association of cosmetics importers, wholesalers and retailers registered under the laws of Ghana and sue in a representative capacity for and on behalf of its members," the statement said.
The writ added that, "there is scientific and medical proof that two per cent hydroquinone in creams and lotions has no harmful effects on the human body.
The total ban on the product has no factual, medical or scientific basis and same is, therefore, illegal".
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