Seoul finds high levels of toxic chemicals in Shein products

Children’s products sold by the Chinese-founded
online shopping giant Shein contained toxic substances in amounts hundreds of
times above acceptable levels, the government of South Korea’s capital Seoul
said Tuesday.

Shein, headquartered in Singapore, has skyrocketed in popularity around the
world in recent years, offering a vast selection of trendy clothes and
accessories at stunningly low prices.

This explosive growth has also led to increased scrutiny of its business
practices and safety standards, including in the European Union and South
Korea — where Seoul authorities have been conducting weekly inspections of
items sold by platforms including Shein, Temu and AliExpress.

In the latest round, they selected eight products sold by Shein, including
children’s shoes, leather bags and a belt and found several to contain high
amounts of phthalates — chemicals used to soften plastics.

One pair of shoes contained 428 times the permitted levels of phthalates —
the highest observed so far during the Seoul inspections — and three bags had
amounts as high as 153 times the limit, the city government said.

Phthalates are widely used to soften plastic and are found in thousands of
products including containers, beauty products and toys. However, they have
been known for decades to cause hormone disruptions and have been linked to
obesity, heart disease, some cancers and fertility problems.

Seoul city official Park Sang-jin told AFP that they have requested a
removal of these products from sale, and said that since the city began
inspections in April, most platforms have complied with such requests.
AFP has reached out to Shein for comment.

So far, Seoul authorities said they have inspected 93 products and found
that almost half of them contained toxic substances. These items include
children’s watches and colouring pencils.

Last month, the European Union added Shein to its list of digital firms
that are big enough to come under stricter safety rules — including measures
to protect customers from unsafe products, especially those that could be
harmful to minors.

Shein and Temu have followed Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba in
challenging Amazon, especially by making inroads in the US market.(AFP)