In a bold move to decisively curb the menace of hawking chemicals in the open markets and streets in Ondo state, operatives of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control(NAFDAC) have commenced major raids and enforcement activities accross the state, impounding chemicals and related sustances worth over N2.5million.
The action of the regulatory officers which took some stakeholders by surprise was carried out to sanitise the chemical markets, its sales and distribution chain to ensure compliance with the requirements of the law.
Speaking to newsmen in Akure, the state capital, after a two-day operation, NAFDAC's head in the state, Mr Paul Agbejimi, said the agency, as a regulatory bod, was concerned “because of the ubiquitous nature of chemicals in the very wide range of their uses, both poisonous and hazardous. There is a need for total control to ensure their safe handling and distribution,prevent diversion and avoid banned and expired ones from being sold to the public.”
Agbejimi, who revealed that the exercise took place simulteneously in the four local governments areas of Akure North,Ondo West,Owo Akure South and had exposed the antics of the marketers of chemicals in the state as some of them were seen displaying them in the open, especially those mainly for agricultural uses uncontrollably. He argued that the chemicals, by that method of sale by the hawkers, were exposed to heat and sunlight.
While condemning the unwholesome practices of the marketers,the NAFDAC chief maintained that “when chemicals are exposed to light and heat,they will disintegrate and decompose which normally reduce their potency.”
Source:tribune
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