Outrage over cancer drug made from... bamboo charcoal powder

On April 8, Kien An District Police, Hai Phong City, said that this unit had just coordinated with functional agencies to inspect a functional food and cosmetic production facility owned by Ms. Dao Thi Chuc (residing in Ngoc Son Ward, Kien An District) and discovered that workers there were pouring finely ground bamboo charcoal powder into capsule shells, packaging and selling to cancer patients.

Products of Vinaca Company Limited.

The police determined that this facility had 10 workers working under the management of Chuc. The products included: Vinaca Vi5 (874 ml), Vinaca cancer CO3.2, Baby Vinaca Vi6, Vinaca Activated Carbon multi-purpose, Vinaca trace (nasal drops), Vinaca multi-purpose and some other unlabeled powders and liquids. At the time of inspection, Ms. Chuc could not present papers, documents and invoices proving the origin of the raw materials and goods at the facility.

Kien An District Police have requested the Hai Phong City Department of Health to verify and provide product declaration records and cosmetic declaration records of the above products. According to the response of the Hai Phong City Department of Health, this department has issued a product declaration acceptance number for the following cosmetic products: Vinaca Carbon multi-purpose; body odor remover; Vi3 cancer, Vi4 body odor remover; baby Vi6; Vi7 alertness for driving, studying under stress and fatigue. These products are manufactured and marketed by Hong An Phong Company Limited (director is Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan).

In fact, Mr. Tuan did not produce cosmetics or pharmaceuticals but lent documents to Nguyen Xuan Thu, Director of Vinaca Company Limited and Chuc's husband, and Thu did not know what he did with them. After that, Thu asked Tuan to burn bamboo to get ash and grind it into fine powder to send to Thu. For every 1 ton of bamboo, Mr. Tuan burned and ground it into fine powder to get 30 kg of finished ash. On average, each month, Mr. Tuan provided Thu and Chuc with 10 bags of ash, each bag of 30 kg. From 2016-2017, Mr. Tuan received over 200 million VND in wages from Thu.

Ms. Chuc confessed that the entire production process had been running since early 2017, under the direction of her husband. The police summoned Mr. Thu to clarify the case, but he did not cooperate and was absent from the locality. According to the investigation documents, Vinaca Company Limited's products were widely distributed in many localities across the country.

In Hanoi, the headquarters of Vinaca Company Limited has a sign but is not operating. The Hanoi Tax Department confirmed that this company does not declare taxes.

Request Hai Phong Department of Health to report

On the same afternoon, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thanh Phong - Director of the Department of Food Safety, Ministry of Health - said that he would request the Hai Phong City Department of Health to report the incident; at the same time, he would review the functional food products with names similar to the products that were just seized by the authorities to see if they were on the list licensed for circulation by the Department of Food Safety or not?

According to a medical expert, the main ingredient in charcoal is carbon. Some types such as coconut charcoal have effects in the medical field such as removing odors and toxic substances in food, removing impurities in water.