By Chen Xiaoru

Department stores selling  swimwear brand Speedo and sportswear brand Camel Active have started removing the bathing suits from their shelves, after a new municipal quality control test showed that the products failed to pass regulatory standards.

The Shanghai Administration of Industry and Commerce said that the Speedo swimwear carried at Westgate Mall in Jing'an district contained elasticity problems, which were, however, deemed not dangerous to the health of individuals.

Among others, the report also found that the PH levels in Camel Active swimwear for sale at another large-scale shopping mall in the same district SOGO were too high, some two points over the maximum 7.0 threshold. Authorities said that in severe cases this could cause skin infections, or damage the nervous system.

A department manager surnamed Hu from Westgate said that the store checks every piece of merchandise that comes in, but that chemical problems are too hard for the naked eye to see.

"We don't have special equipment to examine the items closer, plus, that's not our job anyway," the woman, who declined to disclose her full name, told the Global Times Monday.

Meanwhile, Wang Liuhe, secretary general of the Shanghai Merchandise Commercial Profession Trade Association, an industry group that represents the interests of local department stores and shopping malls, said that authorities should do more to better regulate factory procedures.

"Quality control should start from where the problems stem from, not come after the fact," he told the Global Times Monday. "The items that receive a failing grade at the factories should not be allowed to be shipped out."

The Shanghai Administration of Industry and Commerce could not be reached Monday.