Beijing time on the 16th morning Reuters said the US Justice Department said on Thursday that Japan’s Toyobo Co., Ltd. and its US subsidiary agreed to pay US$66 million to settle the sale of their defective polymer fiber material, Zylon. Accused that this material was used to produce bulletproof vests used by law enforcement agencies in the United States.
Toyobo, based in Osaka, is the only company in the world to produce Chailong fiber. The US Department of Justice stated that Toyobo and its US subsidiary knew its Dyke fiber at normal temperature and humidity for at least four years from 2001 to 2005. It will degrade quickly, making the bulletproof vest containing this fiber unsuitable for use.
Despite this, the company continues to market Dyron Fibers and publish misleading data, underestimating degradation issues.
The US Attorney General Sessions strongly condemned this. He said: 'At some point, the bulletproof vest is something that is between the police and the god of death. Knowing that there is a defect selling this material is dishonest, for those who protect it. Our people have brought danger to their lives. '
At the end of 2003, the US body armor manufacturer Second Chance Body Armor recalled some of its bulletproof vests containing Chyron materials. Toyobo began a public relations campaign to encourage other body armor manufacturers to continue selling armored vests that protect Chyron materials.
These activities delayed the United States’ efforts to determine the extent of degradation of Chailong materials for several years. Until August 2005, a U.S. government study found that more than half of the old bullet-proof vests could not stop bullets. The National Institute of Justice of the United States immediately cancelled Certification of all bullet-proof vests containing Zylon materials.