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.

The Bangkok Post reported on Tuesday that the cream was one product in the Vietnam-based Bao Dam brand of skin-whitening products, adding that their products had previously been found to contain mercury and had been banned.

The article noted, though, that the Thai food and drug administration was still conducting tests and had not officially determined that Bao Dam products killed Chhuon Sovann.

“As far as I know, it is a Vietnamese product,” Chhum Sovanrith said, adding that he planned to temporarily close any salons selling skin-whitening products in his province.

“I will close any beauty salons selling this type of product, which has a bad impact on the skin and health,” he said.

The death of Chhuon Sovann came less than one week after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered the Health Ministry to strictly monitor the use of beauty protects containing toxic chemicals, which he said could cause cancer, among other health problems.