Chinese medicine 'poisoning' poison ... poison

Many people store traditional medicines by sulfur drying many times or use phosphorus aluminum, hexagonal gauge. These are chemicals that when exposed to water vapor, light will turn into a poison.

Paralysis of nerves

Mr. Nguyen Duc Tien, a native of Thai Nguyen, suffered from leg swelling due to improper use of traditional medicine. Specifically in the General Hospital of Thai Nguyen Thai Nguyen in coma (Photo: V.HẰNG)

At a famous oriental medicine agent of Nghia Trai village (Tan Quang, Van Lam, Hung Yen), Mrs. T. said: 'We often store the drug by sulfur drying. Sulfur-dried drugs are never used. If you have the disease, you will make your own medicine and then drink it '.

Ms. Thuong, a housekeeper of a traditional medicine in Tu Son street (Tu Son town, Bac Ninh), said that she often put the bowl of moisture-proof medicine, anti-mite under the wooden prices, and put the medicine bag on top, the termite dare to sharpen the array. She took out a greenish moisture-proof tablet and put it in the air for a minute, and the tablet began to dust. Ms. Thuong said that the common practice of today's professional traders is to put medicine in the middle of each bag of medicine.

According to Dr. Nguyen Viet Than, Hanoi University of Medicine and Pharmacy, the gray-green pill that people use to preserve traditional medicines has the chemical formula AlP (AlxP1-x) called aluminum phosphate (or aluminum phosphorus), with steam will form phosphate (PH3), a toxic gas with a light weight like air, so it is easy to penetrate into pharmaceutical materials and disinfect medicinal materials. However, phosphate is toxic to humans. When poisoned, people suffer from headaches, fatigue, tinnitus, muscle twitching, many cases of vomiting, abdominal pain and lead to neurological paralysis.

Mr. Cao Minh Quang, Director of the Drug Administration, Ministry of Health: Activities of importing traditional medicines are still "in the dark", the pharmaceutical industry cannot manage them all because of the implementation of documents. weak law.The Drug Administration of Vietnam is developing solutions to overcome.

Mr. Than said many cases of medicinal traders also spray chloropicrin directly on the sacks containing pharmaceutical materials. This substance meets light will form chlorine and phosgene, an extremely toxic substance, also has the effect of killing insects, strong antiseptic.

Removal of safety techniques

Dr. Nguyen Van Khai said that all the samples he bought at Nghia Trai and Ninh Hiep (Gia Lam, Hanoi), after analyzing all the results, the amount of preservative residues was much higher than allowed.

Medicinal herbs were dried too many times, all the color, completely lost its natural taste. SO ₂ and SO ₃ molecules were absorbed into the curved surfaces and drug cells, unable to spread. These molecules, when combined with water, form sulfuric acid, a toxic substance, or in combination with many other substances in pharmaceutical materials to produce highly stable crystals. This substance if a lot of residues in the body will cause cancer.

Dr. Le Thi Kim Loan, head of the preparation department - Institute of Medicinal Materials, said: 'SO2 is a very toxic gas, causing cancer, kidney failure and some other diseases. It is very toxic to the maker due to direct contact ".

Dr. Kim Loan said other safe storage methods such as irradiation, using infrared light, freezing, vacuum preservation cost very high. In terms of small and manual business running after profits, the above technical requirements have been omitted.

VIET HANG