"Up to 347 Times" Hazardous Substances Found... Children Need Caution

[Anchor]

A significant number of products from unmanned claw machine arcades, which are popular among children, have been found to contain hazardous substances exceeding safety standards. There were also many stores using suspected counterfeit dolls and showing poor safety management.

Reporter Baegun has the story.

[Reporter]

These are dolls and keychains commonly seen at claw machine arcades.

As a result of testing 20 products obtained from unmanned claw machine arcades by the Korea Consumer Agency, hazardous chemical substances exceeding children's product safety standards were detected in 12 of them, accounting for 60%.

Phthalate plasticizers, environmental hormones used to make plastics flexible and capable of hindering children's growth, were found in 9 products.

One product was found to contain an amount exceeding the standard limit by more than 347 times.

Lead and cadmium, classified as carcinogenic substances by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, were also detected in excess in 8 and 2 products, respectively.

People could not even feel secure about famous character products.

When 10 products with manufacturer names among the surveyed items were compared with genuine products, their shapes and colors differed, and they could not be authenticated with serial numbers or QR codes for checking authenticity.

[Kook Eun-sook / Team Leader of Living Safety at the Korea Consumer Agency: Out of 10 products suspected of being counterfeits because genuine product authentication was impossible, 80% were found to contain hazardous chemical substances exceeding the standard limits.]

Management of unmanned stores also needed improvement.

Out of 16 surveyed locations, 4 lacked fire extinguishers, 3 failed to post safety usage rules, and 11 did not display business registration certificates.

Some places even left broken floor tiles, knives, and gardening scissors neglected.

The Korea Consumer Agency plans to share the survey results with competent local governments and request the government to strengthen safety management and supervision over prizes and facilities at claw machine arcades.

(Video Editing: Kim Yoon-sung, VJ: Jung Han-wook, Photo courtesy of Korea Consumer Agency)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.