Vietnam rushes to analyze potentially poisonous salt after mass fish deaths

By Toan Dao May 19, 2016 | 09:28 pm PT

Manufacturing of salt in Binh Thuan. Photo by Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam’s National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (Nafiqad) has sent an urgent request to its units to take and analyze samples of salt in the central region following the recent mass fish deaths, the government portal said in a statement on Friday.

Nafiqad officials in the affected provinces of Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Ninh Thuan and Khanh Hoa have been instructed to send samples from three salt production plants to regional centers for analysis to check for heavy metals such as Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead and Mercury.

Results of the analysis must be reported back to Nafiqad today.

Nafiqad’s order comes following the mass fish deaths in the central region, which has caused concerns over the quality of salt produced in the area.

Nafiqad is under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.