Johnson&Johnson goes under microscope

HCM City (VNA/VNS) - The Drug Management Department and Ho Chi Minh City
Institute of Hygiene and Public Health are set to test personal care products made
by US company Johnson&Johnson following reports that supermarkets in Taiwan and
Hong Kong have taken them off their shelves.

Earlier, the US-based consumer organisation Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC) issued
a warning that chemicals added to some Johnson&Johnson children's bath products and
adults' personal care products could cause cancer.

The CSC tested 48 of the company's bath products for children and found formaldehyde
and 1.4-dioxane, a petroleum-derived carcinogenic compound, at 54-610 ppm and
0.27-35 ppm in several of them.

Truong Quoc Cuong, head of the Drug Management Department, said his agency contacted
Johnson&Johnson in Singapore soon after hearing about the carcinogenic chemicals
to verify the information.

Cuong said the department would test the products and announce the results.

Le Hoang Ninh, head of the HCM City Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, said his
agency would also check the information, adding that Vietnam prohibits the use
of formaldehyde in food. The chemicals is allowed to be used only in insecticides,
he said.

Johnson&Johnson has rejected the media reports that their products can cause cancer.

Rowel Vijandre, head of the Johnson&Johnson Thailand representative office in
Vietnam, said in a press release to local media the presence of the two chemicals in
the products were relatively low and could not bring damage to people's health.

He added that the trace level of certain compounds found by the CSC could result
from progresses that make their products gentle for babies and safe from bacteria
growth.

He claimed that the US 's Food and Drug Administration and other government
agencies around the world consider this a safe rate and all products meet the
regulatory requirements in every countries where they are sold.

His company would continue to sell these products, he said.-Enditem