17 tons of frozen food with unclear origin found in Hanoi

The Ministry of Public Security’s environment department (PC36) and the Ministry of Health’s food safety department on Wednesday found over 17 tons of frozen food of unclear origin in Hanoi.

Tran Manh Hieu, representative of a family-run business on De La Thanh Street in Ba Dinh District, told the team of inspectors he bought the products from Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Dien Market to sell them in the capital city.

However, he could not produce the documents asked for by the agencies which conducted the inspection along with the Hanoi Market Management Bureau.

PC36 deputy head Luong Minh Thao said they suspected the products, comprising nearly 70 items of mainly seafood and meat, came from China.

According to the agencies, the food was improperly packaged in sacks and spongy containers with Chinese labels.

They also also found chicken legs soaked in an unidentified solution, and took samples for testing.

The agencies said they had sealed the storage facility and asked the business to halt selling the products.

Also on Wednesday, Hanoi’s traffic police detected more than four tons of animal fat of unidentified origin in a truck on National Highway No.1B.

Driver Bui Ngoc Tho said he was transporting the fat to Hanoi on behalf of a person in Quy Nhon Town, Binh Dinh Province.

In a separate case on the same day, Hanoi police confiscated some 3 to 4 tons of chicken from another truck on its way to the capital city from the northern province of Quang Ninh.

Source: Thanh Nien, Agencies

Delta workers hospitalized after mass hysteria attack

More than 40 female workers were hospitalized in the Mekong Delta’s Long An Province Thursday in what appears to be a strange case of mass hysteria.

Around 100 women began crying copiously, and collapsed with their faces turning red, local reports said.

Two women were sent to the Can Giuoc District hospital and 40 to Nha Be Hospital in the neighboring Ho Chi Minh City after the incident happened at around 10a.m. at the bag-making factory of the South Korean Simone company.

Others recovered on their own. Health authorities have not figured out what caused their condition, but suspected it was a case of hysteria.

“I saw her crying and moving her arms and legs like a psychic. Several minutes later, I began crying and felt tired. I saw myself in the hospital when I woke up,” a worker named Tuyet was quoted by newswire Vnexpress as saying about a colleague.

Many others in the hospital also said they became fearful and began crying after they saw others doing so.

They felt tired, had difficult breathing and collapsed, workers said.

Dr. Phung Thi Xuan at Nha Be Hospital said the workers’ condition was not critical.

The first woman having the symptom, who was not identified, said she only remembered feeling something stuck in her chest and had no idea what she did after that.

All the sick workers said they had smelled nothing strange and they’d had their own breakfast, not from a canteen.

Phan Van Nghiem, a doctor from HCMC Health Department, said some workers might have their sugar levels drop as they didn’t have breakfast, and others caught the symptoms because of “psychological infection”.

Nguyen Huu Tho, director of the Nha Be Hospital, told Tuoi Tre hysteria might be the cause. The paper also reported that some workers said they’d seen ghosts in the toilet and made others terrified.

The managers of Simone, where more than 3,000 workers went on a two-day wildcat strike last month asking for timely payment of their salaries, health and social insurance, and not being forced to work overtime, have not been available for further information or comments.

Reported by Thanh Tung

No new swine flu cases during Tet: health ministry

Vietnam has recorded no new H1N1 flu cases during the Tet Lunar New Year Festival so far despite earlier concern over the virus’s spread, health officials said Tuesday.

The H1N1 virus was previously feared to spread during Vietnam’s traditional New Year due to increasing travel rates and public gatherings.

Since it was first detected here last May, swine flu had attacked 11,186 people and killed 58, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health.

Avian influenza, otherwise known as H5N1, was detected in seven provinces in the country, but no human cases of the virus were reported during the holiday, the ministry said.

The ministry also said casualties caused by accidents during Tet so far fell 14.2 percent from the same period last year, with traffic casualties down 21 percent.

Source: VNA