Health authorities have warned customers worldwide to be extra careful when purchasing personal protective equipment from China through online platforms following reports of illegitimacy and poor quality.
Different masks like the in-demand N95 type as well as Valpro Ranger 821 and 821V that were “Made in China” were advertised online as having been certified by safety regulators in the United States such as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Chinese sellers in the country’s famous e-commerce website, AliExpress, have been putting on sale bulk of fake face masks. While some protective gears were promoted in Midas Safety websites in eight countries, including China.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), most products sold online by Chinese are counterfeit and falsely bear the approval number assigned to American multinational 3M.
“To be approved, a respirator model must meet the minimum performance requirements…This approval process ensures a minimum level of worker protection from airborne particulates, such as what health-care workers may be exposed to during the COVID-19 response,” CDC spokesman Scott Pauley explained.
Global News reviewed the sales sites of Alibaba and found out that the “Valpro Ranger N95 masks have been advertised for sale in minimum lots of 100 per order from a sales company based in Henan, China.”
In an interview with the news agency, Ali said that they have never approved the sale of counterfeit respirators and other PPE in their sites. The retailer put the blame on the web administrator that might have mistakenly placed the fake products online.
Aside from the online sale of fake PPE, China has also received several complaints from the countries where it shipped face masks and test kits that are substandard.
The Dutch government recalled 600,000 pieces of N95 protective masks that were manufactured in China for being defective and unable to meet the quality standards needed to protect the frontliners in Netherlands.
“Due to shortages, we have found ourselves in a situation where the only protective equipment available does not meet the highest standards. This is an issue in all countries,” the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport said in a statement adding that half of the total 1.3 million masks purchased from China did not fit and function well.
Last month, Spain and Czech Republic also reported that hundreds of thousands of rapid test kits intended for detecting the coronavirus were unreliable.
