Hanoi  - Large supermarkets in Vietnam have stopped selling Johnson & Johnson products on news that the company's baby shampoo sold in the US contained chemicals that could cause cancer, the supermarkets said Wednesday.

A US consumer group, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, reported this week that it had found formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane in several varieties of Johnson's baby shampoo. The chemicals are considered probable carcinogens, and are banned from cosmetics in some countries, but not in the US.

"We got the order to stop selling most Johnson & Johnson's products, except for makeup powder, in our supermarket chain on Tuesday," said Nguyen Tuyet Thu, a sales manager at Coopmart, one of Vietnam's largest domestic chains.

Nguyen Thi Hong Gam, head of the products division at top Vietnamese supermarket Fivimart, said distributors had informed her Tuesday they were no longer supplying Johnson's products.

The Vietnamese newspaper Lao Dong reported Wednesday that the international retailer Big C would stop selling Johnson's products at its Vietnamese stores until they were certified as safe.

On Monday, Truong Quoc Cuong, head of Vietnam's Drug Administration Agency, said his agency would test Johnson & Johnson products and announce its results as soon as possible.

Vietnam is one of several East Asian countries, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, where stores have dropped Johnson & Johnson products since news of the contaminants broke.

Formaldehyde is used widely in construction materials in Vietnam, and tests have periodically detected it in locally made rice noodles.

The Vietnamese press and public have become increasingly concerned about chemical contaminants in recent years. In the past 18 months, the government has ordered recalls of contaminated soy sauce, substandard milk powder, and melamine-contaminated Chinese milk. (dpa)