An Accra High Court presided over by His Lordship Daniel Mensah, has overruled an objection raised by the Food and Drugs Authority (2nd Defendant) at the preliminary stages of the case involving the Cosmetics Association of Ghana and the Ghana Standards Authority, GSA (1st Defendant) and the Food and Drugs Authority.
The Cosmetics Association of Ghana (Plaintiff) has dragged the GSA and the FDA to court, for the court to review the decision of the FDA to ban cosmetics containing hydroquinone, a chemical that causes bleaching and is believed to be harmful to the health of consumers.
The Plaintiff filed a Writ of Summons, which the 2nd Defendant, FDA objected to, arguing that the Plaintiff should have come by judicial review through certiorari and not a writ of summons.
The judge in his ruling said that but for a recent ruling at the Supreme Court, his decision would have gone in favour of the FDA.
According to him, there exists a Supreme Court decision which allows the Plaintiffs to commence their action by issuing a Writ.
Based on the ruling of the Supreme Court, the judge overruled the objection by the FDA and ordered that the case should proceed without the need for an application to be filed.
In an interview with Counsel for the Plaintiff, Akosua Gyamfi Duamoh, she stated that there has not been any research to substantiate the claim of the FDA that hydroquinone had health implications.
When asked whether they disagree with the effect of hydroquinone, counsel for the Plaintiff said that they do not disagree that the effect of hydroquinone is bleaching but they do not agree with the alleged health implications that the FDA says it poses.
Counsel for the Plaintiff said that bleaching is a choice and the issue of bleaching is more of a social issue than a health issue.
The case has been adjourned to 23rd May,2018.
Source: GhanaJustice/F.Kyeremateng
