By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
When Yun Yeo-pyo, director of the Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA), shed tears during National Assembly questioning over his ``insufficient'' measures on talcum powder containing asbestos Monday, he seemed to have a lot to say.
So did others. Some took pity on the man who had been working day and night to take care of the trouble that he had never intended. Others said tears are not enough to settle the angry public, which had been more than alarmed over a series of food or drug-related incidents including a rat head in a snack, melamine found in powdered baby milk, and asbestos in baby powder in just one year.
Yun was fiercely attacked by both governing and opposition parties during questioning Monday. Lawmakers said the KFDA didn't know talc could contain asbestos and were not prudent enough when it banned sales of 1,022 drugs that were reported to have used talcum powder allegedly contaminated with the deadly substance.
Rep. Park Geun-hye of the Grand National Party criticized that the drug authorities' sales ban was more of an overreaction since it has not confirmed whether asbestos was really detected.
The KFDA's measure was based on a supplement list of eight talc suppliers. Still, the pharmaceutical industry expects the order to have caused tens of billions of losses in the industry.
Rep. Choi Young-hee of the Democratic Party rejected the KFDA's request to expand its budget, saying, ``You always blame the lack of money or manpower long after problems break out.''
The food agency chief replied, ``It is so devastating. All of our staff have been working day and night to deal with the situation. Please give us some encouragement rather than scolding. It drives me crazy since it has been just a few months since we had been hit hard with the melamine-containing powdered milk, which was known to cause kidney problems.'' As he replied, tears were rolling down his cheek.
Insiders claim that a shortage in manpower leaves the agency ineffective and able to effectively cope with food-related problems. The KFDA has 1,400 staff at six regional branches, where about a half are researchers staying at the laboratory, meaning that only about 700 people take care of the distribution, examination, import, management, advertisement and other matters related to all medical goods, drugs, food and cosmetic goods. The number of workplaces they have to look into and examine marks more than 1 million.
The fact that the KFDA was solely blamed for the series of scandals may have contributed to the outburst, observers say. Policymakers for the foods range from the Ministry of Agriculture to the Environment, Health and Knowledge ministries, as well as the Labor Ministry, but only the KFDA gets the blame for mismanagement, they say.
``All our workers have worked so hard but we can't be held 100 percent responsible for such incidents,'' a KFDA official said, declining to be named.
Some weren't too moved by the tears. ``No matter what he says, the authorities should take responsibility for the fear and terror the public had had to suffer from,'' angry citizen Kim So-youn said.
But Yun has just moved out of the frying pan and into fire. Members of the Korea Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association said Tuesday that it would file a joint suit against the drug authority for having hastily banned sales of drugs without a thorough investigation, which caused an alleged hundreds of billions of won in losses.
``We've constantly requested the authorities look into the individual drugs and lift the sales ban, but have heard nothing back. We're at the stage of recruiting members for participation. As of Tuesday afternoon, we have more than 20,'' the association spokesman Jeong Cheol-won said.