Salons may close after skin-whitening death

Mom Kunthear

Phnom Penh Post

THE Banteay Meanchey provincial health department is likely to temporarily close beauty salons that sell skin-whitening creams following the death of a 23-year-old woman who reacted violently to a cream she had purchased in the province, a health official said Tuesday.

Chhuon Sovann, 23, began vomiting after she began using a skin-whitening cream on March 2, and she died on Sunday after falling unconscious, her family members said.

Chhuon Manet, the victim’s 20-year-old sister, said she had been taken to a private clinic in Banteay Meanchey and a hospital in Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province, where doctors said she had suffered a bad reaction to the cream, and that they could do nothing for her.

“The doctors told us that my sister was reacting to the cream that she used, which had absorbed into her skin,” Chhuon Manet said.

Although Chhuon Manet said she did not know where the cream had been made, Chhum Sovanrith, director of the provincial health department, said he suspected it had been imported from Vietnam.

Read More