Seoul City Finds Toxic Substances In Products From Temu And Shein Apps

SEOUL, Aug 14 (Bernama-Yonhap) -- Women's accessories, such as hats and sandals, sold on AliExpress, Temu, and Shein, have been found to contain toxic substances up to 229 times higher than permitted levels, the Seoul city government said on Wednesday.

According to Yonhap news agency, the city conducted safety examinations on 144 products sold on the three shopping apps from 12 July to 9 August and found safety issues in 11 products.

The examined products included 94 food containers, 13 makeup products, 28 sandals and hats, and nine sanitary products.

The results show that two of the sandals contained phthalate plasticizers in amounts that exceeded permitted levels by 167.5 times and 229.2 times, respectively.

Phthalate-based plasticizers are categorised as cancer-causing substances that carry the risk of causing infertility.

Two sandals contained nickel, which could cause contact dermatitis, at two to nine times higher than permitted levels.

In addition, three hats exceeded the permitted levels of formaldehyde by two times or reported a pH scale of 9.3, exceeding the standard pH value of between 4 and 9.

Other cases include two aluminium pots, which contained two times the permitted levels of nickel, and two bottles of nail polish, which had over 3.6 times the permitted amount of dioxane and 1.4 times that of methanol.

The city plans to request that the online platforms stop selling the 11 products with safety issues.

A Seoul city official advised people to be especially cautious when purchasing sandals and hats, as they come into direct contact with the body.

-- BERNAMA-YONHAP