Institute tasks Nigerians on health implications of handling chemicals

The Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria (ICCON) has advised Nigerians against handling chemicals they have no knowledge about.

President of the Governing Council of the institute, Prof. Fanna I. Abdurrahman, said doing so has a lot of safety and health implications.

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She gave the advice in Abuja during the 16th mandatory continuing professional development workshop of the institute.

She said handling chemicals requires understanding the behaviour, properties and characteristics of the materials, adding that those who are not specialists should not be handling chemicals.

She said the National Security Adviser has commenced the implementation of the regulation on the inclusion of ICCON-certified chemists as technical officers for the application of end-user certificate to import high-priority chemicals.

She said enforcement against violators, would commence after the approval of the regulatory framework by the annual general meeting in November and other policy approvals from government.

Prof. Fanna said the importance of mandatory development programmes to chemists cannot be over-emphasized given the sad chemical incidences that have continued to negatively impact the chemical industry around the world, most of which occur due to the lack of proper safety and health strategies.

The Registrar of the institute, Wilford Zungkat Jwalshik, said there is need for chemists to take their rightful place in the various federal government agencies in the country, whether it be Nigeria Customs Service and National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

He stated that 98 members, 78 technical officers and 46 fellows were inducted into the programme.