D&D Fellow on Public Health at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Kwame Sarpong Asiedu, has strongly condemned parents who bleach their children's skin to look lighter.
He explained that most bleaching creams are banned by the country's Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), and anyone who uses or distributes such products is in violation of FDA regulations and must be held accountable for a criminal offence. "A cream that contains a banned substance or a prescription-only ingredient constitutes a clear breach of the Food and Drugs Authority's laws," he said. "The person importing is a criminal, the person selling is a criminal, and the person using is a criminal.
A parent who looks on is also criminally culpable because they allow harm to come to a child," he emphasised.
His comments come in the wake of a joint investigation by JoyNews and Nigeria Health Watch, which has uncovered a deeply troubling public health crisis: parents in Ghana are bleaching the skin of their babies and young children, some as young as three years old, using toxic and banned substances.
