The logo of China’s AliExpress, provided by the e-commerce platform (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Apr. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Children’s products sold on AliExpress, one of the biggest Chinese online retail platforms, have been found to contain cancer-causing substances as much as 56 times higher than permitted levels, the Seoul city government said Monday.
The city released the discovery following a recent safety examination of 31 best-selling products for children and homes available for sale on AliExpress, operated by China’s Alibaba Group.
Of them, toxic substances far exceeding the permitted safety levels were found in eight products, including a swimming ring, two teether toy models, a baby walker and a leather bag for children.
In the children’s leather bag, in particular, four types of phthalates, commonly used in plastic processing, were found in amounts that surpass the permitted levels by 55.6 times.
Phthalate-based plasticizers carry the risk of causing infertility. DEHP, one of the four phthalate plasticizers identified in the leather bag, has been designated as a cancer-causing substance by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Phthalate-based plasticizers, exceeding permitted levels by 33 times, were also identified in the swimming ring. Additionally, the product was found to pose safety risks due to its thickness of 0.19 millimeters, which falls below South Korea’s minimum required thickness of 0.25 mm.
The two tested teethers were, meanwhile, determined to have design flaws that could lead to suffocation while the baby walker carries the risks of users becoming jammed or injured in a fall.
The city said it plans to expand safety testing to two more leading Chinese e-commerce platforms, Temu and Shein, to run a regular safety examination system on all three retail services, including AliExpress.
Starting in the fourth week of this month, the city will release results of these safety examinations on a weekly basis and operate a hotline to receive consumer complaints about products personally imported from overseas.
About 6.8 trillion won (US$5 billion) worth of products were personally imported to South Korea from overseas last year, representing a sharp increase of 28.3 percent from the previous year. Nearly half of these products, or 48.7 percent, were imported from China.
With 8.18 million active users per month in South Korea as of February, AliExpress emerged as the second biggest online seller, following Coupang.
Products directly imported by consumers for personal use are not subject to safety inspection, potentially exposing them to safety risks, such as toxic substances, design flaws or poor durability.
The city plans to minimize consumer damage by speedily providing advice and relief measures to affected consumers in collaboration with the Korea Consumer Agency, if necessary, and establish hotlines with key overseas online shopping platforms, officials said.
(Yonhap)
