By Kim Se-jeong
The Korean office of Reckitt Benckiser, the British manufacturer of a toxic humidifier disinfectant, expressed regret over the death of Koreans using the product Thursday. It also promised to donate 5 billion won for the victims.
“We apologize that we have failed to communicate with victims and their families sooner. Now, we would like to be in active dialogue with them to find ways to support them,” Oxy Reckitt Benckiser said in an email to local journalists.
The move came after Lotte Mart, another manufacturer based in Korea, apologized for the disinfectant scandal Monday.
Family members of the dead and surviving victims expressed their disapproval of the Oxy Reckitt Benckiser apology.
“This is not an apology. Oxy is a murder and deserves punishment,” the victims said in a statement released through the Asian Citizen’s Center for Environment and Health.
Oxy made its first donation _ 5 billion won _ to victims in 2014, which the Ministry of Environment is holding. It also made clear that the donation wasn’t a token of apology.
Meanwhile, the families of the victims said Thursday that they will file a damage suit with an English court against the manufacturer as early as next month, demanding compensation for 100 deaths.
These developments came as prosecutors are conducting an extensive investigation of Oxy Reckitt Benckiser and other local manufacturers for alleged wrongdoings and negligence in the making of disinfectants for humidifiers.
According to the center, the victims’ families will meet this weekend to decide on the number of plaintiffs in the case. Two British lawyers, who collected evidence in Korea in March, are to represent the families.
The Korean government has so far recognized 530 people as victims of the disinfectants. And 103 of 146 dead victims were found to have used the Reckitt Benckiser product, called Oxy. Oxy was one of the 10 toxic brands sold here until August 2011.
The families of the victims have taken preparatory steps to start a legal battle against Reckitt Benckiser since last May after visiting the company’s headquarters in Britain.
All the disinfectants were removed from stores on Aug. 31, 2011, when the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the products were suspected of causing lung failure in pregnant women and children.
The prosecution has mostly stayed tight-lipped, but news outlets poured out reports concerning the investigation.
Prosecutors will reportedly seek cooperation with their British counterparts in investigating the headquarters of Reckitt Benckiser.
The prosecution was also quoted as saying that the company paid a scientist to produce a fraudulent report which became the foundation of its claims that there was no link between the chemicals used in the product and the deaths.
News reports also revealed that the company deleted consumer complaints about the side effects of its product posted on its website.
The prosecution is likely to conclude that the toxic chemicals caused the deaths, a key point the manufacturer has long denied. It is trying to find a correlation between the chemical and other illnesses. Many of the victims have suffered respiratory diseases and skin problems.