TAIWAN: Rubber gloves fail safety standards on plasticizers

Consumer Protection Committee inspections of household rubber gloves showed that 68 % failed to meet required standards as they contained excessive levels of plasticizers or had been labeled incorrectly, with one item containing about 253 times the legal limit for plasticizers.

Many families give their houses a deep clean before the Lunar New Year, an act that symbolizes getting rid of last year’s bad luck and welcoming in good luck, so a lot of rubber gloves are sold over the period every year.

The committee inspected 19 brands of rubber gloves made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and found seven of the products contained plasticizers exceeding legal limits and 10 were mislabeled, with only six brands passing inspections, consumer ombudsman Wang Te-ming said.

Under the terms of Chinese National Standard (CNS) 6632, the amount of six types of plasticizers used in making rubber gloves cannot make up more than 0.1 % of the item’s mass, he said.

Among the seven gloves that failed the plasticizers examination, two products contained plasticizer levels exceeding the limit by more than 250 times, and four products exceeded the limit by 200 times, he said, adding that the committee has asked the Ministry of Economic Affairs to take legal action and require the companies to recall their products.

Consumer Protection Committee Director-General Liu Chin-fang suggested that people wash their hands thoroughly if they eat after using rubber gloves, to avoid swallowing plasticizer residue.

Ten items were mislabeled — mostly because they did not print an expiration date, company information, country of origin or constituent materials, Wang said. “When people choose rubber gloves, they should not buy those that smell bad or abnormal in any way,” Wang said, adding that several of the gloves that contained excessive levels of plasticizers smelled bad or fragrances had been added to them to alter their odor.

Consumers should pay attention to the expiration date of rubber gloves, because gloves made before the legal limits were set might contain high levels of plasticizers, he said. “Goves that cost about NTD 160 per pair contained plasticizers about 250 times the legal limit, while the committee examined gloves that cost about NTD 30 that passed the inspection,” Wang said.

Source: Daily “Taipei Times”, Taipei; 26 Jan 2016
(Syed Rashid Ali, Karachi, Pakistan)