Shanghai: Over 40% Of Bedding Products Substandard

Shanghai Administration for Industry and Commerce has recently released a quality monitoring report on bedding products sold in Shanghai, which says that over 40% of these products were substandard.

The quality inspection covered 40 batches of bedding products sold by 16 companies in the five districts of Shanghai and 17 batches of products were found substandard with a pass rate of 57.5%. Of these companies, famous brands such as Shanghai Pacific Department Store, Buyecheng branch, and Wal-Mart East China Stores Wujiao Square store, were on the blacklist.

The report said that the pass rate of bedding products sold in Shanghai's department stores was 65.2%, and that of supermarkets and specialty stores were 46.2% and 50%, respectively. The substandard products were mainly unqualified in pH value, color fastness, shrinking after washing, breaking strength, and fiber content.

According to the administration, nine batches of the tested bedding products were alkaline, which means their pH was greater than 7.0 and four batches were even with pH value over 9.0. The pH value of human skin is generally between 5.5 and 7.0, which is weakly acidic. If the pH value of textile products is out of this range, they may harm the balance and resistance of skin and causes irritation and corrosion to skin, leading to inflammation, infection, and even damage to a person's sweat gland system and nervous system.

In addition, six batches of the tested product were substandard in color fastness; three batches were substandard in shrinkage after washing; and two batches' actual fiber content were inconsistent with that marked on the labels.