The Nation Newspaper

Tag: expired

  • ‘90% of gas cylinders in Nigeria are expired’

    ‘90% of gas cylinders in Nigeria are expired’

    About 90 per cent of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas/cooking gas in Nigeria are obsolete and need to be replaced, the Programme Manager, National Liquefied Petroleum Gas Implementation (Office of the Vice-President, Dayo Adeshina, has said.

    At the just concluded 7th Annual LPG conference and exhibition, held in Lagos,  Adehina, said obsolete  gas cylinders has become a major issue in the LPG sub-sector of the nation’s gas industry, adding all efforts to do something on it has failed.

    According to him, the stakeholders have been campaigning  for the ban on the use of old gas cylinders, with a view to make the  Federal Government revive the moribund gas cylinders in the country.

    He said the use of old cylinders is disturbing, adding that it has a negative consequence on the society, adding that it has put many families in dangers.

    Obsolete cylinders, he said, has raised an alarm over the non-testing and proliferation of expired gas cylinders in circulation across the country, saying cylinders outlive their safety after 15 years.

    He said; “We need to invest in cylinders and proudly one of the investors would have its cylinder operating plant opened in January. We also need to have cylinder re-proliferation plants.”

    He however, also faulted the regulation in the sector, saying “We need to take care of the regulatory and fiscal policy. Enforcement needs to play a big role. There is going to be ashakeup of regulation because the government has seen that if we ever have a repeat of the incident we had in Nnewi, it is dead on arrival.”

  • SON destroys expired goods in Ekiti

    SON destroys expired goods in Ekiti

    The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) in Ekiti State raided about 100 shops at the weekend and destroyed fake and expired products, estimated at over N4.5 million.

    Operatives of the agency burnt fake and substandard tyres, expired breakfast cereals, packed snacks, detergent, soap, wine and fruit juices.

    Others include television sets and cables as well as substandard LPG cylinders.

    SON State Coordinator Oyebola Ayeni said the raid was conducted in conjunction with security agencies following a tip-off and sustained surveillance by agency workers.

    Ayeni said the destroyed items were seized from distributors and sellers after the products failed quality assurance tests.

    The SON coordinator said most of the seized items had fake company names, fake brand names, fake countries of origin and imaginary expiry dates embossed on them.

  • FRSC: 100 fined for expired documents, tyres

    FRSC: 100 fined for expired documents, tyres

    The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) yesterday said over 100 persons have been penalised by its Badagry Unit in the last two months for driving with expired documents and tyres.

    The unit Commander, Raphael Aderemi gave the figure while appealing for safe driving practices among residents.

    He said about 30 vehicles were impounded within the period, adding that the unit has been canvassing safer highways in order to put safety consciousness in drivers as December drew closer.

    According to him, the focus was to ensure all vehicles plying the highways were road worthy.

    The operatives together with some Special Marshals attached to unit RS2.112 Iba/Ijanikin, mounted road blocks yesterday on the Mile Two-Badagry Expressway to check vehicles, with special focus on commercial buses and heavy duty trucks.

    Aderemi said the checks was to also slow down speeding drivers because they had observed that during the ember months, most drivers are usually on top speed without recourse to their safety of those of others.

    He said: “That few minutes you are stopped to get to answer some questions put across to you by FRSC operatives will help to slow you down if you are flying. It will also help refresh you as you may have traveled long journey to get to the check point.”

  • SON discovers warehouses for repackaging expired products

    SON discovers warehouses for repackaging expired products

    The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has discovered  three multi-storey  structures in Alakija and Kirikiri areas in Lagos, where an importer repackaged expired products and those with short lifespans.

    Its Director of Monitoring & Compliance, Mr. Bede Obayi, an engineer, said the agency acted on an intelligence it received from sister regulatory agency and law enforcement agencies, including  well-meaning Nigerians.

    He alerted the public to the health implication of the huge volume of expired products circulating in the country.

    He lamented the length at which some businessmen would go to deceive the public by securing dubious warehouses and hideouts, where expired products are churned out for unsuspecting citizens.

    Obayi confirmed that most of the products being repackaged were popular brands imported into the country.

    “Perhaps they went overseas to buy these products that are close to their expiry dates and shipped them down here, because they have ready markets where people can buy.

    “More importantly, you are dealing with products that children use.

    “Look at baby diapers that expired in 2015. Imagine what a product that expired in 2015 will do to a baby, if used in 2017.

    “These buildings with the toilets, bathrooms and all available spaces filled with expired products. That tells you the enormity of the crime these people are committing, besides the fact that some of the buildings have poor ventilation.

    “Even if the products are not expired,  the conditions the importer  store the products  have the capacity to make them unwholesome.

    “Look at this wrapper for disinfectant. What they do is to pick the expired ones and use this wrapper with new expiry dates to wrap it. When you have the old products inside this wrap that carries 2018 as expiry date, you will not know you are buying cloned products. The products have lost their active ingredients and efficacy and are high security products because their best before dates has been tampered with.”

    Saying the agency raided one of the buildings in March, Obayi added that the same man owned the three buildings, which he didn’t declare to the agency.

    He said the agency’s offices nationwide are “on red alert and are after any of the products” to safeguard the lives of the public.

    Obayi lauded Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for rising to the occasion by sealing the building.

    Director of Investigation & Enforcement of National Agency for Food Administration Drug and Control (NAFDAC) Mr. Kingsley Ejiofor, who was part of the enforcement team, blamed the nation’ s porous borders for the high incidence of importation of fake and substandard products.

  • Kogi and menace of expired drugs

    SIR: In as much as Nigerians across the divide have given National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) a pass mark in the fight against counterfeit and fake drugs in Nigeria, little or nothing have been done by the agency as regard ridding the drug market of “expired” drugs.  The expiration date of pharmaceuticals specifies the date the manufacturer guarantees the full potency and safety of the drug. It is a fact that most drugs get expired even before their expiry date. This is caused by poor storage facilities, poor transportation network, extreme weather and climate and environmental factors. It is important to keep in mind that the expiry date of a particular drug was determined through testing of previously unopened products, stored in its original container and under a standard weather and climatic condition of temperature. Once you open a bottle, or transfer it to another container (like a prescription vial), the manufacturer’s expiry date is no longer reliable.

    In Kogi State, owners of local drug shops and vendors are smiling to the banks to the detriment of the health of the public. Mobile drug vendors commonly seen in the various farm settlements across the state where the level of literacy is relatively low take advantage of the people to sell expired drugs. The inability of government to provide ample and the right drugs in dispensaries across the state has created a lacuna which the vendors are taking an advantage.

    Considering the harmful effects of “expired” drugs, NAFDAC in partnership with the Kogi State Ministry of Health should urgently beam its searchlight on the activities of the local drug shops popularly called “chemists” and mobile drug vendors who handle and store drugs in ways that compromise the efficacy and potency of the medicines, making them dangerous for use even before the expiry date. Pharmaceutics are meant to be kept and stored under a certain range of temperature and climatic conditions which are not always adhered strictly to by the “chemists” and vendors. Even though the expiry date inscribed by the manufacturer of these medicines states otherwise, one may not be wrong to conclude that about 80 percent of drugs in the local drug shops are already expired and therefore dangerous to health.

    Because of their spread and proximity to the rural people, most Kogites patronize the “chemists” and mobile vendors; the fact that their drugs are relatively cheaper compared to the ones of the standard and sophisticated pharmaceutical stores makes them the destination of choice for low income earners and the poor. NAFDAC and the state Ministry of Health should constantly send out a task force to checkmate activities of mobile drug vendors and to flush out, sanction and close down any chemist which fails to adhere strictly to standard in the storage of drugs. The health and wellbeing of poor Kogites are as important as that of the rich. A healthy state is a wealthy one.

     

    • Hussain Obaro,

    Lokoja, Kogi State.

  • SON clamps down on expired consumables syndicate

    SON clamps down on expired consumables syndicate

    The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has seized expired household consumables and cosmetics worth billions of naira at a house in Kirikiri, Lagos.

    The products were imported into the country by a syndicate dealing in substandard and expired products. The agency has put in place a vigorous process of recall to get these products out of circulation.

    Products discovered at the warehouse included baby diapers, body creams, sanitary pads, detergents and other household items with expiration dates between 2009 and 2015. The most worrisome according to our correspondent, are expired baby diapers which have negative effects on babies.

    Director General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Osita Aboloma explained that the agency, courtesy of a tip off, stormed the warehouse, stocked with all sorts of expired products, pointing out that when a product loses its active ingredient, it means the product has lost its efficacy and can no longer be used for the purpose it was meant for.  He said as a result of this, the importer would face the wrath of the law based on the new SON Act number 14 of 2015 which gives the agency the power to prosecute.

    Aboloma, who was represented by the Director, Compliance Directorate, SON,  Bede Obayi, an engineer, said:  “What we have discovered, it  is a dubious warehouse where people churn out products to markets and what  we have seen is that they are also supplying to supermarkets. We are going to carry out further investigation and process of recall to use those people that they have supplied, the status of the products and the expiry dates. We have our offices throughout the nation and we are going to escalate the recall process immediately when we get all the details of their transactions. Anywhere we find these products in circulation, SON must get there to pick them at the cost of this importer. SON can no longer tolerate this nefarious act and people who are out to kill Nigerians in the name of merchandise.

    This is not acceptable to SON and we cannot take this.” Aboloma added: “Imagine a product that should be used in wrapping up a baby in 2017 has expired in 2015, what will be the effect on the baby, of course it would be negative reaction on the baby. We have baby powders that have expired since 2013 and four years after, the products are still going into the market. When they sell, they remove the expiry dates and put new dates  to deceive the unsuspecting consumers and when you buy these products, you think they are products that can help you, not knowing that they are products that would cause you all sorts of diseases.”

    According to the SON official, many innocent people suffer without knowing the root causes of their illnesses, maintaining that the importer of these expired products are killing and robbing innocent Nigerians of their hard-earned money

    He urged Nigerians to join hands with the agency in its quest to safeguard them against fake and substandard goods, adding that SON would relentlessly continue to work hard to achieve its zero tolerance for substandard products in the country.

    “These products are popular and imported brands which show that these people go overseas to buy products that are almost close to their expiry dates and bring them down here because they have cheap markets where people can buy them. We have come here and we discovered products all stuffed in every part of the building. This tells you the magnitude of crime that this man is committing bringing in these substandard products,” Obayi stated.