Can Cancer Cause Shoe Polishing?

Some scientists said that it is possible in floating shoe polish to contain compounds of nitro, a poison to blood, nervous system .

Ask to buy a shoe box at a stall in An Dong market, Ho Chi Minh City, she sells quickly: 'Do you use goods cheap or cheap?'. Two boxes of Kiwi brand shoe polishers, looking over can not distinguish the difference, but with a price difference of 10,000 VND.

Overflowing goods lacked origin

On a closer look, the high-priced box (25,000 VND) has additional stamps of distributors, manufacturers, instructions for use and ingredients of active ingredients such as carnauba Wax, Montana Wax, Microcrystalline Wax & Ester Wax O. And the box of cement costing 15,000 dong is nothing but Thai lines.

The danger hidden in the shoe polish float.Artwork from Women's newspaper.

Not only are these cheap Kiwi goods missing the stamps of importers and distributors. In many shops that sell poker, we found that the categories bearing Kine and Klen brands . lacked stamps and did not know the chemical composition of the products. Most of these are in the form of wax, water, and polish.

Surveying at Tan Binh and An Dong markets and a number of shops on Cach Mang Thang Tam street in August, we are all answered with high prices from Vietnam, while cheap ones are from Thailand, America and Singapore. However, according to Ms. Hang, owner of PT, in An Dong market: 'all kinds of cheap goods are floating goods from China but' deny origin 'in Thai and English, so . very difficult to distinguish '.

Dr Pham Thanh Quan, deputy head of the Department of Chemistry, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, suspects that in these floating products there will be nitro compounds, such as nitrobenzene, a precancerous substance.

'Nitro compounds have been banned but in order to reduce the cost of many businesses, the low-quality production units are still used because nitro compounds are easy to color, beautiful color combinations, and last longer, durable. more, ' Dr. Quan emphasized.

Toxic to the blood, nervous system

Master Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet, Institute of Biotechnology and Food, Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry said, nitrobenzen is a light yellow liquid with a characteristic smell of almond oil. As a solvent used a lot in organic synthesis.

Nitrobezen is an extremely toxic compound, especially with blood and nervous system. Breathing for a short time a large amount of nitrobenzen will quickly lead to loss of sensation, paralysis, dizziness, vomiting, and nervous system damage. When the body has a long-term effect of nitrobezen, the skin is bluish, easily causing cancer.

Master Nguyet said that in shoe polish, nitrobenzen may be available because the derivative is dark brown. Professor Tran Van Sung, Institute of Chemistry, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology also affirmed: 'In the long run, nitrobenzen can cause cancer'.

But the danger is that this compound easily harms through contact with skin and respiratory tract. Therefore, like Professor Sung, Dr. Pham Thanh Quan worried that the shoe-shine children were affected by the types of syringes mixed with nitro compounds.

'Shoe polish has a compound of nitro, if it gets stuck in the skin, it will last a long time, as if we were going to dye our skin. Long-term inhalation of these types of calcium will affect the nervous system. They are very toxic to human health, ' said Dr. Quan.

Nitrobenzen is a liquid, difficult to evaporate if mixed into shoe polish, it has the effect of slowing evaporation, cleaning, long shadowing. But it is also quite easy to identify shoe polish with this compound. 'Shoe polish products that use nitrobenzen are usually yellow and smelly.' Usually, this compound is often used to color, forming brown, high-colored cement and sometimes used to make black poker.

There is no standard for shoe polish

Ms. Tran Thi Tuyet Nhung, Deputy Head of the Conformity Assessment Committee, General Department of Standards - Metrology - Quality (Ministry of Science and Technology) said that among the above 6,000 Vietnamese standards there is no standard for shoe polish products. However, according to the Japan Industry Standards System (JIS), nitrobenzen is not included in the active ingredient list in shoe polish.