Studies Find Dangerous Amounts Of “Forever Chemicals” In Shein’s Children’s Clothing

A concerning new bout of testing has revealed millions of Shein children’s clothes may contain high levels of toxic chemicals that may be linked to cancer, infertility and even autism.

According to a May 28 report, South Korean officials and researchers conducted extensive random testing to examine Shein and other foreign e-commerce sites like it. The researchers sought to determine whether these sites adhere to safe business standards.

They randomly tested a wide variety of items, including clothes, bags, and belts. Some items contained over “400 times the safe level of compounds,” which would allow them to pass through the skin and enter the blood and nervous systems. The researchers randomly pulled and examined 93 different products, many of which were even advertised in the site’s children’s section.

The findings are especially concerning considering Shein — a Chinese-owned company headquartered in Singapore — popularity in the United States. In fact, “its app ranked second in the nation last year.”

According to data reports, Shein ships nearly one million packages per day to the US, and due to its increased popularity, South Korean officials have begun to analyze its products weekly.

The most recent study revealed that some products had excessive levels of phthalates, a chemical that causes unchecked hormone changes and does not break down once it’s released into the environment. The “forever compounds” are used to make packages and items” grease-proof, water-proof, stick-proof and stain-resistant,” but when they come into contact with skin, they can bleed out of the products and get into the body. Still, when ingestion, inhalation, or contact.

The chemicals’ permanent nature is especially important when considering children’s clothing that was tested and found to contain high levels of phthalates.

According to the report, “Officials found that one pair of shoes had 428 times the permitted levels, while three bags had 153 times the limit of forever chemicals.”

In response to the harmful findings, Shein released a statement.

The company said, “Our suppliers are required to comply with the controls and standards we have put in place, and we work closely with international third-party testing agencies … to regularly carry out testing to ensure suppliers’ compliance to our product safety standards.” The spokesperson also claimed Shein had conducted over 400,000 chemical safety tests in the past year in their commitment to selling safe products.

“Upon learning of any claim against our products, we immediately remove the product(s) from our site as a matter of caution whilst conducting our investigation.”