Cosmetic Surgery Death: Lagos Moves To Domesticate Safety Policy

 

The Lagos State Government has begun moves to strengthen the regulation of cosmetic products and procedures following a recent cosmetic surgery-related death in the state.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, Dr. (Mrs.) Kemi Ogunyemi, disclosed this during the presentation of the National Policy on Cosmetics Safety and Health and its Implementation Plan at the Lagos State Ministry of Health.

The presentation formed part of the exit meeting of a four-day stakeholder

engagement on the policy held in Lagos.

Ogunyemi said the government was currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a woman who reportedly died after undergoing cosmetic surgery in the state.

According to her, the incident is being investigated by the Health Facilities Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA), including the drugs used for the procedure and their sources.

“This engagement could not have come at a better time. Only this week, we had an unfortunate incident where a well-known lady died in Lagos following cosmetic surgery,” Ogunyemi said.

She stressed that the government would not tolerate unsafe medical or cosmetic practices, adding that patient safety remains a top priority.

“When even one person dies, it means something has gone wrong, and we certainly do not want such incidents to happen again,” she said.

Ogunyemi noted that the state government would ensure effective implementation of the National Policy on Cosmetics Safety and Health across the cosmetics value chain, including manufacturers, suppliers, training institutions and health facilities.

She added that Lagos would continue to take the lead among states in implementing policies aimed at improving consumer safety.

Director of Cosmetics Safety in the Food and Drug Services Department of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Paul Okhakhu, said the policy was developed to address increasing cases of health complications linked to unsafe cosmetic products.

Okhakhu explained that reports of adverse reactions from adulterated, wrongly formulated and substandard cosmetic products prompted the Federal Government to develop a national framework to regulate the sector.

“We have been seeing cases of people experiencing adverse events as a result of the use of adulterated, wrongly formulated or substandard cosmetic products, and because of this the government decided to take the matter seriously,” he said.

According to him, the policy was validated in Lagos and later launched at the 66th National Council on Health in Calabar to guide regulatory actions and support states in developing their own implementation plans.

Okhakhu added that the Federal Government was also developing a national dashboard to monitor the progress of implementation across states.

He said Lagos was selected for early engagement because of its strategic importance as Nigeria’s commercial hub.

“If we are able to get it right in Lagos, we believe we can get it right in other states,” he said.

In her remarks, the Director of Pharmaceutical Services in the Lagos State Ministry of Health, Pharm. Olawale Poluyi, described the engagement as a major step toward strengthening cosmetics safety in the state.

She said the ministry would ensure that resolutions reached during the engagement translate into concrete actions to improve regulation and consumer protection.

The four-day engagement brought together 49 participants from federal and state government agencies, regulatory bodies, academia, industry associations, cosmetology practitioners, civil society organisations and the media.

Participants reviewed the cosmetics safety landscape in Lagos and developed a State Cosmetics Safety Action Plan aimed at protecting public health and ensuring safer cosmetic products and procedures.