Local authorities in the central province of Quang Tri are carrying out large investigation into frozen fish kept at various seafood stores in the area following the discovery of fish contaminated with phenol.
A batch of scad taken from Dung Thuoc Store in Cua Tung Town was tested positive for phenol, a harmful chemical substance, on June 11.
Director of Quang Tri Province's Department of Sciences and Technologies, Tran Ngoc Lan, said that they returned to Dung Thuoc Store in Cua Tung Town, Vinh Linh District on June 12 afternoon to take more fish samples for further investigation.
"We will take samples from all the stores in the province during June 12 and 13 for the investigation which will be carried out at the Vietnam Institute for Sciences and Technologies," Lan said.
A batch of scad taken from Dung Thuoc Store was tested positive for phenol, a harmful chemical substance, on June 11.
Tran Van Thanh, director of Quang Tri's health department, said inspectors had tested samples of six fish species at Dung Thuoc's store, including three batches of scad weighing 30 tonnes. One came up with a phenol content of 0.037 milligram per kilo.
Quang Tri authorities have ordered the store to destroy all 30 tonnes of scad, which the store owner said they bought soon after fish in the central region began to die.
It was unclear how the scad, often caught around 15 kilometres offshore at 30 meters deep, were contaminated with phenol.
Phenol, or carbolic acid, is primarily used to synthesise plastics and related materials. The substance may cause harmful effects on the central nervous system, heart, liver and kidney, resulting in dysrhythmia, seizures and coma.
Vietnam is still struggling with a prolonged mass fish deaths disaster. In April, hundreds of tons of fish began to die en mass along the beaches of four central provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue.
Suspicion has centred on Hung Nghiep Formosa Steel Company, a major Taiwanese firm in the Vung Ang Economic Zone in Ha Tinh. The company admitted it has a large sewage pipe going straight into the sea, but it claimed all its discharged wastewater had been treated.
Although a large number of agencies and experts have been called on to find out the cause of the fish deaths, until now no official results have been announced.
