Covid-19: SON warns against fake hand sanitizer, wash lotion

…vows to punish offenders.

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

The importance of quality liquid hand sanitisers cannot be overemphasised especially at a time like this, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has therefore advised Nigerians to patronise only certified  products by the organisation.

The regulatory agency sounded it clear that some of the hand sanitisers on sale today have bad reactions and are  bound  to damage human skin,

The Director General, SON, Osita Aboloma, therefore warned manufacturers of these products not to compromise standard as the organization would  not tolerate any minus in standards.

Aboloma

Aboloma stated this through  his representative at the Ogun State Office 11,  of SON, Engr.Akanbi Eyitayo Micheal, during  a facility tour to Cormart Nigeria Limited, Ogun  State on Thursday.

He  urged consumers to always insist on patronising only hand sanitisers certified by SON to avoid harmful effects to their skin while also getting value for their hard earned money.

According to him, quality hand sanitisers and liquid hand wash are one of the critical tools to battle the virus, saying that hand washing with soap and water is one of the most important steps that can be taken to avoid getting sick and spreading the virus to loved ones.

Many diseases he said were spread by not cleaning the hands properly after touching contaminated objects or surfaces, stressing the importance of washing hands regularly.
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SON has supported  the manufacturing and importation of essential materials to combat the challenges of COVID-19 through the deployment of 28 relevant international Standards from the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and one from the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) on Alcohol based Hand Sanitisers.

Stressing that In all their observations during  quarterly visits to the factory, they have been shown high level compliance to SONs standards.

“and we will like to tell consumers and stakeholders  not to patronise all the hand sanitisers in the market, some of these hand sanitisers have bad reactions on your skin, so it is always good to patronise only certified liquid hand wash in this present situation we have found ourselves,” he said.

He said in line with the Federal Government’s  ease of doing business mandate, SON had repositioned itself to become business facilitators, as it has been to Cormart Nigeria Limited, he urged manufacturers to utilize the advantage.

Lending his voice, the Technical and Plant Manager, Mr. Jelle Van Der Meer thanked SON for the visit stating that the company recognizes that it is a trying period in the world, so it is open to visits and suggestions by SON to help the company raise the bar for performance to a higher level in achieving corporate goals.

Van De Meer also reassured the SON team that as an ISO certified Company all observations for improvements will be adhered to and given the necessary attention as it is open for continual improvement with the proper understanding of what it means to produce premium quality products in keeping ahead of competition.

SON’s visit was important to the company as it would go a long way to raising its bar for standardisation while also generating new ideas and creating new opportunities for the company to be competitive.

As a leading company in the manufacturing of general household products the visit of SON was to ascertain the company’s production line of hygiene products especially the hand sanitizer and antiseptic cleaners. an inspection was conducted on the production process from storage through packaging.

De Meer said SON’s input and their standards  helped the company to be in a good position to produce goods to meet international standards in a bid to combat the deadly virus.

“The visit by SON is very important because it gives us the ideas and opportunity to raise the bar and we are glad to receive technical support from SON to achieve bigger goals for the greater good.

” I applaud SON for being part of our journey to get to the highest level  of producing quality products. Their input has been very important to us and it will trigger us to do even more and become better than our competitors,” he said.