The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has destroyed two 40-footer container loads of substandard diapers for babies imported into the country.
The diapers, confiscated from marketplaces, were destroyed in Atadeka near Ashaiman in the Kpone Katamanso Municipality of the Greater Accra Region. Vigil Edward Prah-Ashun, Head of the FDA’s Enforcement Directorate, stated that the goods were collected from merchants during market monitoring exercise in the region from January to the present.
Mr Prah-Ashun recalled a joint statement issued in July last year by the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the FDA, and the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) alerting the public about the growing importation of unregistered disposable baby diapers into the nation.
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According to his statement, firms were given until December of last year to regularize their operations.
Surveillance
Mr Prah-Ashun stated that starting in January of this year, regulatory officials began monitoring the market for such disposable baby diapers and discovered an inflow of products that did not fulfill regulatory, packaging, and labelling norms.
The FDA’s Head of Enforcement stated that as a result of market surveillance, the FDA seized the diaper consignment for safe disposal, citing the health implications of using such substandard baby diapers, which could endanger the health and well-being of babies and children.
Mr Prah-Ashun stated that a girl child who uses any of them may contract an illness that leads to infertility in adulthood, whilst boys may acquire testicular cancer as a result of the chemicals employed in the production of the substandard baby diapers.
He recommended the public to buy only registered baby diapers that are properly wrapped and labeled, rather than loose ones that have been exposed to the vagaries of the weather.
