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| Costco Wholesale Korea posted a recall notification on its official website Wednesday. The U.S. warehouse club's local subsidiary said it began a recall for memory foam pillows that may contain excessive amounts of radon. / Yonhap |
By Park Jae-hyuk
Costco Wholesale Korea is facing growing criticism from consumers for its belated recall of radioactive pillows imported from China, according to industry analysts Thursday.
The U.S. warehouse club's local subsidiary wrote on its official website Wednesday that it began a recall of the "pureLUX Gel Cloud Memory Foam Comfort Pillows 2 Pack" as the radon content of the product may exceed the permissible level.
The measure came three months after a complaint from a Korean consumer, who personally measured the pillow's radon content and informed Costco of the amount in August.
The retailer denied the consumer's claim at that time, citing a private institution's measurement.
The institution's data includes the radon content of the pillow, but lacks thoron content.
Thoron is a radon-220 isotope, a natural decay product of the most stable thorium isotope.
Local broadcaster SBS claimed the pillow contains 1,406 becquerels per kilogram of radon, nine times higher than the permissible level.
Costco said it has been aware of possibility of the pillow containing excessive amount of radon, after it carried out in-house testing on the product after complaints from several customers.
"We reported our findings to the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission on Oct. 29, and decided to conduct a voluntary recall, regardless of the commission's investigation," the company said.
However, it declined to disclose the specific radon content and the reason why the pillow contains the radioactive substance.
It also refused to mention the amount of sales and imports of the product.
Although the warehouse club has 1 million members in Korea, it has yet to notify each customer of the recall.
It has not come up with a compensation plan either.
Costco had imported the pillow from Sinomax between December 2017 and April 2018.
The World Health Organization categorizes radon as a Group 1 carcinogen, because the radioactive material may cause lung cancer.
Given that pillows are in contact with faces every night, customers may fall into a higher risk of exposure to radon.
"I thought the pillow would be natural and organic, because of the word pure in its name," said a Costco customer living in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province. "I am concerned about safety of other memory foam pillows the company sells."
Costco said its other memory foam pillows and latex products do not contain radon.
On Tuesday, the Korea Consumer Agency ordered Daijin Bed to pay 300,000 won ($263) to consumers who bought the bedmaker's mattresses containing radon.
