{"id":184022,"date":"2024-11-28T06:21:27","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T06:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/28\/chinese-companies-apologise-for-shrunken-sanitary-pads\/"},"modified":"2024-11-28T06:21:28","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T06:21:28","slug":"chinese-companies-apologise-for-shrunken-sanitary-pads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/28\/chinese-companies-apologise-for-shrunken-sanitary-pads\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese companies apologise for &#8216;shrunken&#8217; sanitary pads"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/e31a\/live\/91e40640-ad4a-11ef-bdf5-b7cb2fa86e10.jpg?resize=1024,576&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Chinese companies apologise for &#8216;shrunken&#8217; sanitary pads\" title=\"Chinese companies apologise for &#8216;shrunken&#8217; sanitary pads\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Major sanitary pad makers in China are apologising after being accused of selling pads that are shorter than advertised.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">It comes amid a storm of anger after viral social media videos showed Chinese women measuring the lengths of sanitary pads from popular brands &#8211; showing that most of them fell short of what was stated on their packaging.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The uproar has extended into broader grievances about women being short-changed by feminine hygiene products, which have a history of safety scandals in China.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Chinese women have taken it upon themselves to call out quality concerns in sanitary pads, the most commonly used feminine hygiene product in the country.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">In one of the earliest videos, posted on 3 November, a user on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu examined nine brands of sanitary pads with a measuring tape, showing that they all fell short of the length stated on their packaging. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">&#8220;Will cutting a few centimetres help you strike it rich?&#8221; the user wrote in her video.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The revelations soon ignited widespread criticism, with consumers accusing sanitary pad makers of being deceitful.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">&#8220;The inflated sanitary pad length is just like the insoles under men\u2019s feet,&#8221; reads one popular Weibo post.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Amid the uproar, an investigation of over 20 different sanitary pads by Chinese news outlet The Paper found that nearly 90% of the products were &#8220;shrunken&#8221;, measuring at least 10mm shorter than claimed on their packaging. Tucked within most of them were even shorter absorbent layers, which are meant to soak up menstrual flow.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The Paper also reported that while national standards for sanitary pads specify that the products can measure within 4% of advertised lengths, they do not specify the length of the absorbent layer in sanitary pads.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Following a torrent of complaints, authorities said they were revising the current national standard on sanitary pads, according to local media.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Met with enquiries and complaints from customers about the discrepancy in its sanitary pad lengths, the popular Chinese brand ABC further stoked outrage after its customer service reportedly responded to a complaint by saying &#8220;if you cannot accept [the length difference] then you can choose not to buy it&#8221;.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">ABC said in a statement in mid-November that it was &#8220;deeply sorry&#8221; for the &#8220;inappropriate&#8221; response, and promised to improve its products to achieve &#8220;zero deviation&#8221;. Other companies including Shecare and Beishute have also issued apologies.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Chinese state media has also weighed in on the controversy, criticising manufacturers for cutting corners. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">&#8220;As a daily necessity for women, quality of sanitary pads is directly related to the health and comfort of the user,&#8221; reads a Xinhua article. &#8220;The problems existing in some products on the market cannot be ignored.&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Sanitary pads are the most commonly used feminine hygiene product in China, where the market is valued at $13bn (\u00a310bn). However, the products have also made headlines over the years for safety issues. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">In 2016, police busted a massive &#8220;fake sanitary towel&#8221; operation in southeast China, where millions of sanitary pads were manufactured in a factory without proper hygiene measures and packaged as popular brands. In 2021, popular feminine hygiene brand Space 7 apologised and vowed an investigation after a woman claimed she found a needle in one of its sanitary pads.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The wave of anger also reflects broader grievances felt by women over the quality of products meant for them.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">&#8220;Is it that hard for sanitary pads to tackle women\u2019s needs?&#8221; reads a trending hashtag on Weibo.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Another trending phrase that has caught on amid the blowback encapsulates the outrage: &#8220;Sanitary pads yield a centimetre; women yield for a lifetime.&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cev9ry341dyo\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Major sanitary pad makers in China are apologising after being accused of selling pads that are shorter than advertised. It comes amid a storm of anger after viral social media videos showed Chinese women measuring the lengths of sanitary pads from popular brands &#8211; showing that most of them fell short of what was stated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/e31a\/live\/91e40640-ad4a-11ef-bdf5-b7cb2fa86e10.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[604],"tags":[7678,3394,771,11291,11636,144054],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184022"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184024,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184022\/revisions\/184024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}