Seoul govt finds high levels of toxic chemicals in Shein products

SEOUL, South Korea — 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.

Consumer protection

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.

READ: Online retailer Shein is latest to face strict EU digital regulations

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 coloring 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.