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| Civic groups and victims' family members protest in front of Oxy Reckitt Benckiser's building in Youngdeungpo-gu, southwestern Seoul, calling for a boycott of their humidifier sterilizer product containing hazardous chemicals that reportedly killed nearly 1,200 people in this 2017 file photo. / Korea Times photo by Shin Sang-soon |
By Kim Jae-heun
The prosecution said Tuesday it has indicted 34 people over their involvement in manufacturing and selling hazardous humidifier sterilizers that killed over 100 people with respiratory diseases.
The mass arrests and indictments are the second of their kind following a 2016 case which involved disinfectants that contained a different chemical.
According to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, SK Chemicals former President Hong Ji-ho and seven others, mostly former executives of toxic disinfectant manufacturers, were arrested, while 26 others were indicted without physical detention over their involvement.
Those people include officials from SK Chemicals, Aekyung Industrial and E-mart, which produced and sold disinfectants containing the toxic chemicals, chloromethylisothiazolinone (CMIT) and methylisothiazolinone (MIT). They are accused of manufacturing and selling the products without properly examining their toxicity and informing consumers of the possible health hazards of their products.
The officials and their companies were excluded from the first round of the investigation in 2016 because the studies on the chemicals were insufficient to prove a causal relationship between the chemicals and the health effects on the victims. Back then, the investigation was focused on Oxy Reckitt Benckiser Korea, Lotte Mart and Homeplus which made and sold products with another chemical, polyhexamethylene guanidine (PHMG).
However, as piles of studies on the two chemicals proved their toxicity afterward, the prosecution decided to reinvestigate the case in last November.
The companies are also accused of attempting to destroy evidence, such as test results proving toxicity of the two chemicals.
Prosecutors also found that an official from the Ministry of Environment leaked confidential government information to the companies.
The ministry official, surnamed Choi, allegedly received millions of won in bribes from Aekyung Industrial in return for providing the government's internal test results on CMIT and MIT and the ministry's documents to be used in the National Assembly's inspections into the ministry between 2017 and 2019.
In November 2018, the official also allegedly tipped off Aekyung Industrial executives on the prosecution's planned investigation and advised them to remove all data related to their disinfectant in advance.
