Repellent mosquito repellents

Some mosquito repellents claiming to be 100 percent natural and recommended for pregnant women and infants contained chemical substances.

The Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission conducted a test on 21 mosquito repellents sold at big shopping websites, and found the majority of them lacked required certificates, involved misleading promotion, or were just common skin care lotion.

A skin spray sold on the e-commerce platform JD.com labeled Jindun was promoted as a mosquito repellent for babies with "8-hour protection" on the website, but it had no certificate showing it was a mosquito repellent or any documents proving its protective effect against mosquitoes, the commission said.

On the website, the product was said to have an outstanding performance in repelling the pests. It was also said to be applicable for pregnant women and baby.

However, its use description on the bottle did not mention anything related with mosquito repellent, the commission found.

A ChuChuBaby spray sold on yhd.com was promoted to have a good effect in driving mosquitoes away with a simple spray on clothing, but a document yhd.com provided revealed the product only works on flies, the commission said.

In total, 14 samples tested by the commission had no relevant certificate and should not be called mosquito repellent.

In addition, a Vape mosquito repellent spray for babies sold on JD.com that was promoted as a natural protect was found to contain 10.73 diethyltoluamide — an insecticide, according to the commission.

"Many companies do not conduct tests over the safety of mosquito repellents for the use of babies when they claim these products are suitable for infants, and their promotion is very misleading," said Tang Jiansheng, deputy secretary-general of the commission.