GEORGE TOWN: The Consumers' Association of Penang (CAP) has urged the authorities to investigate Shein products entering the country.
This follows recent findings by the Seoul City government that children's products sold by the online shopping platform contained high levels of toxic chemicals.
According to news reports, the Seoul government has been conducting safety inspections since last month following growing safety concerns about products sold by Chinese e-commerce platforms.
The latest information revealed that seven out of eight tested products from Shein contained formaldehyde and phthalates, exceeding safety limits.
CAP president Mohideen Abdul Kader said this was alarming as Shein was one of the online e-commerce platforms popular in Malaysia, especially among the youth.
"CAP calls on our authorities to immediately conduct safety tests of products sold on Shein as it has allegedly been found to contain highly dangerous chemicals," he said today.
Mohideen said in order to reduce contact with harmful substances, CAP advised consumers to always wash new clothes before wearing them to get rid of toxic chemical layers.
"Consumers should also avoid buying from brands that are not transparent about their manufacturing processes.
"Avoid or reduce getting clothes or items labelled as stain, water, or odour-resistant," he said.
It was reported that 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 recently.
Shein, headquartered in Singapore, has skyrocketed in popularity around the world in recent years, offering a vast selection of trendy clothes and accessories at low prices.
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.