But this time the NZ Herald is behaving responisbly. That’s probably because they caught TV3’s Target, which seems to be one of those consumer affairs-type programmes, you know, the kind that uncovers scams and dodgy products and so on. Funny how they have a collossal huge ad sitting over their page, the kind of ad you have to click on some close button to get rid of, all the while hoping it’s not going to take you off to some site you’d rather not be visiting cos you opened that page looking for what is under the ad, not for whatever junk the ad advertises, but the only way to see what is under the ad is to click on the close (or in this case, skip) button and hope. Anyway, the NZ Herald caught them. Apparently it was Target who broke the “clothes with 90000000000 times more formaldehyde than they’re supposed to!” scandal. But:
The Government is using the textile method which tests for free formaldehyde. This is the method applied around the world and used in guideline standards.
…..
Although Target declared it tested for total formaldehyde, it appears then to have compared these to the recommended levels relating to free formaldehyde. As a result it has been reported in some media that the chemical was detected in clothing tested at up to 900 times the recommended level.
…..
AgResearch has tested more than 50 garments from New Zealand clothing companies for free formaldehyde since Target aired, with one garment exceeding 20ppm, with a reading of 50ppm.
So Target took garments in for testing, and had them tested for the total formaldehyde content, making no distinction between free formaldehyde and bound formaldehyde, and then compared the total formaldehyde levels with international standards for free formaldehyde, which naturally winds up making the garments look so incredibly laden with nasty toxic chemicals that the only rational response left is panic.
So it would seem that Target was misleading the consumers whose interests it claims to be fighting for. I can’t comment on whether they did that deliberately or not because one big glaring hole in the NZ Herald article is the lack of any investigation into how Target came to be comparing mismatched data. But of course, regardless of whether Target was deliberately misleading its viewers or not, the result is more fanning the flames of the toxic Chinese products “scandal”.
So just another example of the dodgy, irresponsible reporting that’s driving all this hysteria about Chinese products.
