SK Chemicals accused of hiding evidence on toxicity of humidifier disinfectant

Hong Ji-ho, former president of SK Chemicals, enters the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul, Wednesday, to attend a court review on issuing an arrest warrant for him over the company's alleged hiding of evidence for toxicity of its humidifier disinfectant products. The court issue the warrant later in the day. /Yonhap

By Bahk Eun-ji

The Ministry of Environment has filed a complaint with the prosecution against SK Chemicals, an SK Group subsidiary now named SK Discovery, for allegedly hiding evidence on the toxicity of its raw materials for humidifier sterilizers.

The complaint came a day after Hong Ji-ho, the company's former president, was arrested on charges of professional negligence resulting in injuries and deaths as part of a reopened investigation into the toxic detergents that were linked to hundreds of deaths.

According to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, the ministry requested its investigation into the company and some of its officials last week, accusing them of hiding research data indicating the toxicity of its raw materials used for humidifier disinfectants, during the ministry's field inspection last year.

Under the special law on the humidifier sterilizer case established in 2017, those who make false testimony, hand over false evidence or hide evidence from the ministry's investigation are subject to imprisonment of up to one year or up to 10 million won ($8,800) in fines. SK Chemicals is the first company to be accused of this.

During the ministry's inspection last year, the company said it did not have any data about methylchloroisothiazolinone (CMIT) and methylisothiazolinone (MIT), two chemicals used in humidifier disinfectant products the company made and sold through another company Aekyung.

But the prosecution later found results of a study on the safety of CMIT and MIT, which the company had requested Seoul National University to conduct in 1994. In the study, the research team suspected possible harmful effects of the materials on humans and suggested additional studies.

The prosecution suspects the study report is the key evidence that the company sold the disinfectants without verifying the toxicity properly.

SK Chemicals has been the supplier of chemicals used for humidifier disinfectants to several companies besides Aekyung. It also offered other chemicals for Reckitt Benckiser's Oxy products.

Earlier this month, Park Cheol, a senior vice president of SK Chemicals, was arrested on charges of concealing evidence.

Hong was also arrested late Wednesday night, on charges of “professional negligence resulting in deaths and injuries,” the first such accusation among former and incumbent SK Chemicals executives, indicating the authorities believe the company's products were toxic despite its denial.

While Oxy was slapped with fines in 2016 for mislabeling its disinfectants as safe for the human body, SK Chemicals has avoided punishment because the harmfulness of CMIT and MIT has not been proven clearly.

According to government data released last month, 6,309 people have been affected by the disinfectants and 1,386 of them died. Civic groups and victims' groups claim the actual number is much higher, saying more diseases should be recognized as caused by the products than the current government criteria.

Civic groups claim 128 consumers of Aekyung's product suffered from illnesses and 27 of them died.