Disinfectant probe may expand to Oxy headquarters
Officials of Oxy Reckitt Benckiser enter the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in southern Seoul for questioning over the company’s production of harmful humidifier disinfectants, Tuesday. / Yonhap
By Lee Kyung-min
The prosecution may expand its investigation into harmful humidifier disinfectants to the head office of Reckitt Benckiser in Slough, England, one of the makers, on suspicion that it endorsed the sales of products containing the harmful chemical here.
The headquarters’ approval, if proven true, contradicts its previous claim that it was unaware of the production and sales of the products made by its Korean branch, Oxy Reckitt Benckiser.
Investigators at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office reportedly secured a document which showed the Korean branch’s head obtained approval of the sales of disinfectants containing polyhexamethylene guanidine (PHMG), a chemical responsible for severe lung illnesses and deaths, from the head office before starting sales in 2001.
Prosecutors will investigate the details of the head office’s approval process and whether it committed negligence, according to the daily DongA Ilbo.
They also plan to summon and question dozens of former key executives at the Korean branch who worked between 2001 and 2012, during which time the company sold some 4.5 million products, accounting for 80 percent of the humidifier disinfectant market here.
The executives will include former head of the branch, Shekhar Rapaka, who denied the company’s responsibility for the scandal during a National Assembly inspection in 2013. He then expressed regret to the victims but said the company believed the products were safe when it sold them.
Already on Tuesday, two executives in charge of human resources management at Oxy Reckitt Benckiser were questioned. The prosecution will also summon officials managing quality assurance and product development soon.
Meanwhile, prosecutors said their digital forensic team found out the Korean branch’s cover-up attempt through restoration of computer hard disks seized at the company headquarters in Seoul during their raid in February.
According to the prosecution, Oxy Reckitt Benckiser erased a material safety data sheet (MSDS) about PHMG, compiled over 10 years, shortly before the prosecution launched its investigation.
SK Chemicals, the manufacturer of PHMG, submitted the MSDS to Oxy, in which PHMG was categorized as toxic material that should not be drunk or inhaled.
Prosecutors will question company officials over why they erased the sheet.
The problematic humidifier disinfectants, made by Oxy Reckitt Benckiser and other local manufacturers, are believed to have killed 146 people here, with 103 of them using Oxy’s products, according to environment groups.