According to the authority, the move has become necessary following revelations that some traders in the market are importing and selling cosmetics and household chemical substances that are fake, substandard, unregistered or banned.

Addressing traders in a stakeholders’ meeting to discuss issues of regulatory concern in the cosmetics and household chemical substances industry, the Chief Executive Officer of the FDA, Mrs Delasi Mimi Darko, in a speech read on her behalf, said the FDA found the breaching of regulations in the sector worrying.

She said surveillance carried out by the Medical Devices, Cosmetics and Household Chemicals Enforcement Department of the FDA at the Accra Central Market and its environs “has revealed some worrying regulatory breaches with respect to the importation and sale of cosmetics and household chemical substances requiring that urgent steps were taken to address them”.

Regulatory breaches

Mrs Darko identified five main regulatory breaches as the importation and sale of unregistered cosmetics and household chemicals, the importation and sale of spurious, substandard, falsified, falsely labelled and counterfeit cosmetics and household chemicals and the unauthorised importation of registered products.

The rest, she said, were the importation and sale of cosmetic products containing hydroquinone and the importation and sale of steroidal products on the open market as cosmetics, most of which were unregistered.

Unauthorised products

She acknowledged the important role stakeholders could play in helping to address these concerns and explained that the FDA had to move to the market to engage traders, so that they could share their concerns, which would enable the authority to design strategies for the furore.

During the discussions, officials of the FDA took turns to educate the traders on the harmful effects of the importation and sale of substandard and banned products.

According to them, even though the authority is not against the importation of hydroquinone, the law is against the importation and sale of cosmetic products containing hydroquinone which have been identified as a major causative agent of skin cancer.

Provide us with tip-offs

They urged the traders to be one another’s keeper by reporting people who breached the regulations governing the importation of certain substances into the local market and appealed to them to collaborate with the FDA to flush out the miscreants.

The acting Deputy Chief Executive and Divisional Head, the Medical Devices, Cosmetics and Household Chemicals Unit of the FDA, Mrs Akua Amartey, said the FDA relied on information from the public to help it apprehend traders and business people who were importing fake, substandard and banned substances.

She said it had been proved beyond doubt that the use of cosmetics laced with hydroquinone and steroids had serious health consequences and advised the traders to comply with directives to have them banned.

Prevent unauthorised goods

Some of the traders present at the meeting urged the FDA to liaise with the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority to ensure that banned cosmetics and household chemicals were not allowed into the country.