AUTHORITIES raided a store in Barangay Poblacion, Danao City, Cebu, past 11 a.m. Monday, September 11, for allegedly selling toxic mosquito coils.
Personnel of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Regional Special Operations Group (RSOG) and Danao City Police Station seized more than a hundred boxes of BaoMa black mosquito repellent coils from United General Merchandise.
BaoMa is one of the China-made products banned by the FDA for posing danger to public health.
Senior Inspector Windell Abellana, the RSOG team leader, said they were tapped by FDA to investigate the store last week.
An undercover police officer succeeded in buying a BaoMa mosquito coil.
Abellana said the police and FDA still have to investigate where the store sourced their supplies. The owners, who were not caught yesterday, will face administrative charges.
The FDA’s website listed BaoMa as one of the 16 banned insecticides, mostly from China.
“Buying unregistered insecticide product is dangerous to health since the active ingredient is unknown and may cause harm to consumers. There are insecticides that are banned in the Philippines, and these toxic products are being smuggled and dumped in the country,” the FDA’s public health warning read.
The agency further stated that these insecticides can cause skin rashes, affect asthmatics and they have “active ingredients, which may interfere with metabolism of prescribed medications people are taking for a serious illness, thereby causing complications.”
The other banned products are aerosol can spray Tianshi, Big Bie Pai Extra Power, Butiki Water-based Multi-Insect Killer (possibly locally manufactured), General Toad, Wawang Frogking, Sun Universe Frogking, Read a Dream Insecticide, Baolilai and Big Bie Pai.
Mosquito coil products with brand names of BaoMa Wawang, Juzhongwang, Kingba Mini-Smoke, Tianshi, Read A Dream Black mosquito repellant and Green Leaf Powder Cockroach Killing Bait are not registered with the FDA. (KAL)