On March 10, 2014 the Vietnamese news provider Thanh Nien News published an article reporting on aluminum associated contamination in Northern Vietnam. Man Xa village is a center for aluminum recycling and the subsequent production of cookware products. In the article Nyguyen Tuan, journalist for Thanh Nien News, reports that many villagers suffer from respiratory and digestive health problems with children and the elderly being most affected. 50% of people living in the village have died of cancer. According to the article, the diseases are caused by the discharge of untreated wastes into air and ground water by the recycling and manufacturing plants. As such, pots and saucepans manufactured from recycled beer cans and door frames are cleaned with a chemical/water solution likely to contain the chemical chromium trioxide. Chromium trioxide is highly toxic, corrosive and carcinogenic. Further, products manufactured from recycled aluminum with low purity, as that used in Man Xa, are often contaminated with lead, arsenic and cadmium. These heavy metals may migrate into food during cooking and endanger human health asserts La The Vinh, deputy chief of the School of Chemical Engineering at the Hanoi University of Technology.

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Nguyen Tuan (March 10, 2014). “Vietnam aluminum recyclers endanger humans, environment.

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