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| Graphic by Bae So-young |
By Kim Jae-heun
Hana Tour and Mode Tour, the country's top two travel companies, have been found to have conspired with subcontractors in Thailand to draw tourists from Korea to buy latex products containing radioactive materials, according to industry insiders.
Those outsourced companies are run by Koreans living in Thailand that guide tourists to local destinations, including shops that sell anion producing latex products such as pillows and mattresses.
Travel agencies normally develop and market tour programs, and have their subcontractors run them.
Nearly 90 percent of "anion latex" products sold were made with monazite powder _ an ore containing radioactive thorium that emits radon as it decays.
Tourists are lured into buying them as retail shops market the products as "comfortable and healthy."
The shops also stress those products are originally made in Thailand, while offering them at an attractive price.
However, these bedroom products could cause cancer.
"You can say all Korean travel agencies bring tourists to shopping centers in Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Krabi and Chiang Mai. Of course, not all shops here sell anion latex products. But they account for 90 percent of the general latex products sold in the market. This is because anion latex products have a bigger margin than original latex goods," an industry insider told The Korea Times.
"People here have warned Hana Tour about the harmfulness of the anion latex. But the travel agency has ignored it."
Hana Tour takes a substantial commission _ effects 65 percent _ on every latex product sold to tourists, the source noted.
Hana Tour in Seoul denied the allegation.
"We have never heard about this issue before. Our subcontractors say they stopped taking tourists to shops selling anion latex goods in 2015. Moreover, there has been no proven evidence or tests that show anion latex products contain hazardous chemicals," a Hana Tour official said.
Mode Tour also denied the charge.
"We are aware our tourists are taken to latex shops in Thailand. But as far as we know, our subcontractors take them to shops that have stopped selling anion latex products," an official said.
However, the source said this was untrue, saying they are still being sold.
"Nowadays, they sell half of anion latex bedclothes with monazite power and half of them without it. You can measure the radiation dose of the latex products with a Geiger counter and about half will react randomly," the insider said.
"Also, the powdered monazite does not mix thoroughly when added to latex in a liquid form during the manufacturing process. Radiation is detected coming from the finished product."
He added Korean tourists have been purchasing over 600,000 anion latex pillows and 50,000 mattresses a year on average since 2010.
Chinese tourists are the second largest number of tourists after Koreans being taken to anion latex retail shops there.
Chinese tourists purchase nearly 10,000 products a month on average.
Russian tourists do not buy the products as Russia's airports have radiation detectors.
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