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The humidifier disinfectant scandal: the need for vigorous government oversight of chemicals and household products to secure public safety

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Copyright © 2016 The Korean Society of Environmental Health and Toxicology

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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The humidifier disinfectant scandal in South Korea is the first of its kind in the world and represents the most deaths caused by a home supply item.

The disinfectants were manufactured using materials from SK Chemical or other importers and distributed by multiple for-eign and domestic companies, such as Oxy Reckitt Benckiser and Lotte Mart. The disinfectants were first introduced to the market in 1994, with more than 20 different types being sold until 2011. Over the 18 years, eight million people are presumed to have used this product. To date, about 130 people have been officially confirmed to have died as a result of using this house-hold product.

Both the suppliers and the manufacturers bear primary re-sponsibility for this tragedy. The suppliers sold the chemicals knowing their toxicity, and the manufacturers launched the product without securing a toxicity test report, yet still adver-tised their products as harmless to humans. The absence of an integrated legal and administrative system to identify and screen out toxic chemicals is also to blame. Currently, the system moni-tors chemicals and the products made from them separately. Therefore, because of the lack of an integrated regulatory sys-tem, when the intended use of a chemical is changed, and peo-ple are exposed to it in different ways, it is not possible to evalu-ate toxicity. The humidifier disinfectant that people directly in-haled was considered an industrial product, so it had been cate-gorized as a voluntary certification product with no minimum safety standards. Various government agencies, such as the Min-istry of Trade, Industry, and Energy; the MinMin-istry of Environ-ment; and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, are all partially responsible for monitoring potentially harmful chemical sub-stances, which makes it difficult to pinpoint accountability; this loophole in the system has also led to delayed compensation for the victims. During industrialization, the Act on the Registra-tion and EvaluaRegistra-tion of Chemical Substances and the Chemicals Control Act were implemented to monitor the rapid increase in the use of such chemicals. This tragedy, however, shows that

Korea’s regulatory regime is inefficient and is still far from the standards in other developed countries at ensuring public safety against toxic chemicals.

The Korean Society of Environmental Health and Toxicology and the Korean Society of Environmental Health, the two lead-ing Korean academic societies on environmental health and toxicology, have been engaged from the onset of the humidifier disinfectant crisis. To minimize the suffering of the victims, the two societies participated in the government investigative com-mittee and evaluated the appropriateness of government re-sponses and relief activities. In 2011, the societies also hosted the first forum on environmental toxicity, conducted an inde-pendent study to identify the causes of the incident, and shared the research results with the public. Despite all of these efforts, it is very unfortunate that this incident has not yet been resolved and the victims have not yet received financial relief.

Both societies pledge to continuously take action to further strengthen the rules and regulations regarding research ethics and conflicts of interest, thereby improving standards in the ar-eas of environmental health and toxicology.

To that end, the two societies hosted a second forum on envi-ronmental toxicity to develop subsequent relief and compensa-tory measures for the victims as well as measures to prevent a similar incident in the future. At the same time, the two societies call for systematic policy support from the government so as to implement the following:

1. Use all available national resources to relieve and compensate the victims appropriately, and establish institutional frameworks to guarantee people’s safety against chemical substances and to pre-vent another tragic incident.

2. Establish standards for evaluating the effect of disinfectants on the lungs and respiratory system (including the development of respi-ratory diseases such as rhinitis, bronchitis, and asthma), other or-gans, and mental health.

3. Ensure that not a single victim is excluded from receiving appropri-ate relief measures and compensation due to limitations of modern

The humidifier disinfectant scandal: the need for

vigorous government oversight of chemicals and

household products to secure public safety

• Editorial

Open Access

Environmental Health and Toxicology

Volume: 31, Article ID: e2016012, 2 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.5620/eht.e2016012 eISSN: 2233-6567

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Environmental Health and Toxicology 2016;31:e2016012

science or administrative difficulties. Moreover, the disinfectant us-ers and the victims’ health should be monitored continuously. Ad-ditional efforts should be made to search for potential victims who used the product in question but were unreported.

4. In addition to general medical, social, and financial support, provide victims with immediate mental health support and rehabilitation at the national level. Such supports will help the victims recover and return to society.

5. Consolidate the management of all current environmental damage and compensation laws (e.g., Asbestos Injury Relief Act, Act on Li-ability for Environmental Damage and Relief Thereof, and Special Act for the Hebei Spirit Oil Spill Incident at Taean) under a single regulatory regime so as to more effectively investigate the causes/ damages and to manage compensation in a more efficient way. 6. Overhaul the current toxicity testing system for chemical substances

to ensure rigorous standards equivalent to those of the European legislation on Biocide, and advance the level of science and tech-nology used for the safe management of toxic chemicals. Special legislation for biocide products should be enacted to mandate that manufacturers register their products and obtain government per-mission before launching. As weaknesses have been exposed in the

existing Act on the Registration and Evaluation of Chemical Sub-stances, an integrated management system for chemicals and con-sumer products is necessary.

7. Enforce registration and evaluation of all chemicals distributed do-mestically and establish a Toxic Substance Control Center for post-marketing surveillance of distributed chemicals; the Center will be able to monitor damages caused by chemical substances and rein-force chemical substance management accordingly.

Finally, yet most importantly, we hope Korean society will show sincere sympathy and support for the suffering experi-enced by the victims and their families.

Pangyi Kim, President Korean Society of Environmental Health Jong-Han Leem, President Korean Society of Environmental Health and Toxicology

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