Forum on regulation of advertisements held

Wa, Sept 14, GNA - The Food and Drugs Board (FDB) has appealed to media organizations to ensure that all advertisements had the board's seal of approval before they are aired or published as a way of checking the public from consuming unwholesome products. Mr Yaw Kwarteng, Head of Import and Export Control of the Board, said most of the adverts aired by radio stations were not often the original scripts that were approved by the Board. He said this when he presented guidelines for the advertisement of drugs, cosmetics, household chemicals and medical devises at a forum organized by the board for media personnel and staff of some agencies including the Ghana Health Service in the Upper West Region at Wa. The FDB, he said, had noted with concern the role being played by radio presenters in drug adverts.

"Some radio presenters have turned themselves into pharmacists, doctors and consultants in the way they advertise drugs on air". "Drugs are not ordinary commodities of commerce, there must therefore be sanity in the promotion of medical products", he said. Mr Kwarteng said since 1998, the FDB had tried several measures to bring sanity into the advertisement of drugs including holding series of meetings with media organizations to explain the requirement of the law on adverts but none had worked. This necessitated the temporary ban placed on the advertisement of drugs that came into force on September 01.