The Government of Seoul, the capital of South Korea, has found toxic substances in products sold by Shein, a Chinese-founded online shopping company. The Seoul government informed that the toxic substances were hundreds of times above the permissible level in the products.
As a part of the scrutiny of business practices and safety standards of companies, Seoul authorities have been conducting weekly inspections of products sold by platforms like Shein, AliExpress and Temu.
As a part of the scrutiny process, eight products sold by Shein, including leather bags, children’s shoes and belts were selected. Several of these contained high amounts of phthalates – chemicals used to soften plastics.
The Seoul government said that one pair of shoes had phthalates 438 times higher than the permissible level while three bags had 153 times higher chemical levels.
Phthalates, a plastic softening chemical found in products like containers, toys and beauty products, are known to cause hormone disruptions and are linked to obesity, heart disease, cancer and fertility problems.