Dubai: Authorities are investigating the recall of two types of Head & Shoulders shampoo in Qatar.
Qatar's Ministry of Environment is recalling Head & Shoulders Shine (Serial No. 5011231475854) and Head & Shoulders Lively & Silky (Serial No. 5011321360990) after claims that samples tested show high levels of carcinogens
Qatar's expert panel which issued the order late on Saturday said the compound 1,4 dioxane was found above 10 parts per million (ppm) in the two variants of the shampoo brand. The compound in excess could cause cancer and other skin diseases, it said.
The panel is made up of representatives from the Ministry of Environment (MoE), Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Urban Planning, Supreme Council of Health and the Ministry of Business and Trade (MBT).
The panel's decision to recall two variants of the popular shampoo comes just a short time after it ordered the recall of four other shampoo brands early this month.
Information
Authorities in the UAE are attempting to get information from Qatar.
"We are currently investigating the matter, we've not received anything from the Qatari government bodies informing us of the reason behind the recall," Engineer Redha Hassan Salman, Director of Public Health and Safety at Dubai Municipality, told Gulf News. "There can be many reasons for a recall, not all are due to harmful material, it can be as simple as a labelling mistake."
"We have to have something official from the authorities in Qatar, we must know what the batch number is and if that batch is available here," says Salman.
He added that the municipality is ready to act once the official reports have come in regarding the recall, "The report may come with its own procedure on how to handle the recall, otherwise we will follow our own procedures to recall the specific batch and perform our own tests on the samples."
Confusion
The recall of the popular shampoo brand has confused retailers who say they had not been directly notified by the competent authorities.
"We came to know about the recall from newspapers today and we immediately withdrew both the variants from the shelves," a management executive from a leading supermarket said. "We got in touch with the country dealer of Head & Shoulders. They said the banned products are being currently distributed in all the GCC countries."
Long-time users of the shampoo said they were worried about the damage the product might have inflicted and are reportedly upset that the authorities did not make the findings of the test public immediately after they were known.
— with inputs from Habib Toumi, Bahrain Bureau Chief
Do such incidents make you consider other brands? Have you ever come across recalled items still for sale? Do you know who to call in these circumstances?
