Unproven health products under fire

Shanghai's consumer rights advocate called on the government Monday to regulate companies that manufacture products claiming to provide unfounded health benefits.

The Shanghai Consumer Council said that at least 30 percent of recently surveyed local households have purchased such products, which the council dubbed "health promotion products."

The Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences polled 1,700 residents for a survey about the products.

The category is composed of products such as pillows, foot massagers and electric appliances that offer specific health benefits, including devices that claim to improve the user's circulation.

Although these products must comply with consumer safety standards, they don't fall under regulations that govern most other health products, such as dietary supplements, said a senior council official surnamed Tang.

"There are no government agencies that supervise or register so-called health promotion products in the country yet," Tang said at Monday's press conference. "So, there are no standards to test whether the devices function like their manufacturers claim."

The lack of government supervision has made it easy for consumers to end up feeling like they have been ripped off, said Qiu Weiling, the head of the council's health promotion products division. The council received more than 200 complaints about these products in the first half of 2013, up 17 percent from the same period last year.

One elderly resident filed a complaint against the manufacturer of a helmet that purported to improve its wearer's circulation after his son found out that the company was actually a toy manufacturer based in Guangdong Province.

Qiu said it is difficult for the council to settle such complaints because no system exists to determine whether the product does what its manufacturer says it does.

"About 90 percent of buyers we surveyed have never filed a complaint about a health promotion product," said Lei Kaichun, a research fellow from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

"It is difficult for people who have spent large sums to acknowledge that they wasted their money," Lei said.