Indonesia bans cosmetics, medicine and food from China

Mumbai: Indonesia has banned the import of medicines, cosmetics and food supplements from China, which are reported to be posing health hazards.

The ban followed findings that some medicines imported from China contained harmful chemicals while the cosmetics showed traces of mercury and rhodamin and its food products showed the presence of formalin which was dangerous to health, Indonesian health authorities said.

"The ban will only be lifted after the authorities had inspected them," Husniah Rubiana Thamrin Akib, chieh of Indonesia''s Medicine and Food Control Organisation (BPOM), said.

The National Medicinal Analysis and Food Centre, meanwhile, examined 79 food items from China and the results would be known next week, Siam Subagyo, is head, said.

BPOM said it is carrying out inspections on all goods from China to check the possibility of contaminated products.

Products that contained harmful chemicals included seven types of chewing gum, plum sweets, and three types of toothpaste which contained chemicals for use as a freezer in refrigerators and lubricating oil.

Husniah also said there was a possibility that the items were dumped in other countries after the Chinese government had banned them.

He said the ban was also imposed by other countries, which found these products as hazardous substances.