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.

In the investigative report aired on Monday, 2nd June, it was revealed that in communities such as Chorkor, a densely populated fishing enclave in Accra, skin tone has become a status symbol, with children emerging as the latest victims.

Mothers are reportedly applying creams containing harmful ingredients such as hydroquinone, mometasone, and tretinoin, all of which are banned by Ghana’s FDA.

Alarmingly, some are even resorting to the use of household bleach, including hypochlorite products commonly sold under brand names such as "parazone".

Read full report: Bleached Babies: The toxic beauty obsession endangering Ghana’s children