Mr. Kofi Amponsah Bediako, Communications Director, Ghana Standards Authority, on Thursday said imported used underwear could seriously undermine the health of users.

He said body fluids from sneeze ,intimate parts of earlier users, their sweat and saliva could transfer micro organisms to the new user and that could cause skin irritations and other health hazards.

Speaking at an education programme on the importation and sale of banned secondhand underwears, jointly organised by Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) and GSA in Bolgatanga, he said “Micro organisms still stay on these under wears for six months and after this, they begin to activate themselves leading to skin rashes”.

Mr Bediako said Legislative Instrument (LI) 1586 promulgated in November 1994, banned the use of such items in the country and called on dealers in these items to get rid of their stock.

Explaining further to participants at the programme, who constituted dealers and traders of imported used clothes, chiefs, assembly members, sanitation workers and the general public, he said shirts, trousers, and jackets could be used except those directly worn on the skin such as handkerchiefs, pants, brassieres and sanitary ware.

According to him, enough room had been given to dealers to understand why it was necessary to ban the items, and the need for the promulgation of the LI to stop the importation of under wears.

He urged traders to stop importing them because the country’s borders and entry points would search and confiscate such items.

Mr Bediako advised parents to avoid the temptation of giving their personal handkerchiefs to their children to use since they could pass on organisms through coughs, sneeze, saliva and phlegm which could not be removed simply by washing.

Madam Fausia Nasiru, a second hand cloths dealer in the Bolgatanga Municipality, said through the programme, she now understands why she should not deal in secondhand underwear.

Some participants asked why for 18 years, the authority was not able to implement the LI and had to wait that long, saying it was long overdue for it to be implemented and the necessary penalties imposed on those who flouted the law.**