Don't Use Turpentine As Toothpaste - FDA Warns

OFFICIALS OF the Food and Drug Authority (FDA) in the Brong Ahafo Region are worried over the sale of turpentine as toothpaste by some unscrupulous people to unsuspecting members of the public as a cure to bleeding gums.

Matthew Nkum, Regional Officer of the FDA, revealed this during a stakeholders' sensitisation forum at Sunyani. He said the FDA had authorised the police to arrest all persons involved in the act.

Briefing journalists on actions being embarked upon by the FDA in the region to wipe out the market of unwholesome foods, drugs, blood and blood-related products among others, Mr Nkum said, 'Our outfit has been able to fight and reduced the presence of aphrodisiac in the region' stressing that 'sellers used to hold briefcases walking from office to office but now it has died down only to re-surface intermittently.'

The FDA had also arrested producers of fake drugs with the authority's letterhead claiming to be certified by the FDA. One practice, he said, however, was gaining grounds in the region is herbalist using chloramphenicol to mix with herbs claiming to cure impotency. He warns the public to be wary of that.

The regional officer of the FDA also advised the general public to desist from purchasing orthodox medicine from buses or vehicles. 'Drugs can only be sold in licensed chemical shops and not in buses,' he said.

From Daniel Y Dayee, Sunyani
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