[Exclusive] Consumers notified not to detect environmental hormones of "companies backlash"

<Anchor> Even

after confirming that environmental hormones were released, the Consumer Agency did not disclose the fact that it was detected, let alone follow-up over the past two years.

The reason was that there were concerns about backlash and lawsuits from automakers.

This is reporter Yun Nara.

<Reporter>

In September 2018, a consumer member who received the test result indicating that environmental hormones were detected in the seat cover of a passenger car called in car maker officials in October.

This is the report of the meeting at the time obtained by SBS.

Consumer Agency said that there is no relevant regulation even though phthalate, an environmental hormone, is carcinogenic and there is a concern about disturbing the endocrine system, and that countermeasures should be reviewed to relieve public anxiety.

However, automakers argued that it is difficult to come up with an improvement plan due to the lack of laws and standards, and that applying the new standard is concerned about rising costs.

In the end, the two sides decided to come up with an improvement plan after conducting additional experiments, but there was no action for the next two years.

The Consumer Agency did not disclose the detection of environmental hormones even though it said that public anxiety should be resolved.

An official from Consumer Agency explained that the experiment was not intended to be publicized at the time, and that automakers were concerned that they would file a lawsuit with opposition if they announced the detection without regulatory standards.

[Jong-Sung Lim/Deocratic Democratic Party Member (National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee): Consumer Service is a place to promote consumers' rights and interests and help consumer life.

However, not notifying consumers of these results did not limit the consumer's right to know and choice...

.]

However, in December 2018, about two months after the meeting, KCC disclosed that environmental hormones were detected in the car steering wheel cover through a press release.

The highest levels of environmental hormones from the 10 steering wheel covers were only a third of the highest levels from the seat covers.

Unlike car manufacturers, which are mostly large corporations, steering wheel covers are mainly manufactured by small and medium-sized businesses.

(Video coverage: Seol Min-hwan, video editing: So Ji-hye)

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<Anchor>

Reporter

Yun Nara

is here.

[Reporter Yoon Nara: I have covered up the detection of environmental hormones because of concerns about backlash and lawsuits from automakers, but I am suspicious that the Consumer Agency paid more attention to the companies than the consumers.

It is pointed out that even if there are currently no regulatory standards, the detection itself should have been informed in order to protect consumer rights and interests.

[Reporter Yoon Nara: I tested the seat covers of five domestic automobile manufacturers. I don't know why, but these four companies used artificial leather and one company used urethane seat covers as samples.

However, environmental hormones were not detected in the urethane material sample. If we disclose the names of the four companies in which environmental hormones were detected, the other company may receive unfairly positive evaluation in some ways.

However, the company's seat cover also has artificial leather, so if it was taken as a sample, environmental hormones could have been detected.

So, in this article, we decided it was right to anonymize this company.

That is why further experimentation is important in the future.

You must conduct additional experiments strictly and disclose the results transparently.] 

▶ [Exclusive] Environmental hormones in artificial leather sheets…

"Use without restrictions"