CEO of Company Selling Toxic Cleaning Agents Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison
The prosecution has requested prison sentences for the CEOs of Duseong Industry and other companies, as well as the CEO of the company that sold the cleaning agent, on charges of causing multiple workers to be poisoned due to the use of a cleaning agent containing toxic substances.
At the trial held on the 13th under the sole jurisdiction of Criminal Division 4 at Changwon District Court in Gyeongnam, the prosecutor requested that CEO A of Duseong Industry be sentenced to one year in prison and that Duseong Industry as a corporation be fined 20 million won.
DS Korea, known as a subcontractor of Duseong Industry, was fined 5 million won.
Earlier, CEO A and the corporation of Duseong Industry were indicted in June on charges of handling the hazardous substance trichloromethane without installing local exhaust ventilation and failing to take safety and health measures, resulting in acute liver toxicity poisoning affecting 10 main office employees and 6 subcontracted employees.
CEO B and the corporation of Daeheung R&T, who stood trial on charges of using the same cleaning agent as Duseong Industry and leaving a local exhaust ventilation system with weak airflow in the workplace, causing 13 employees to be poisoned, were also requested to receive the same sentence.
CEO C of Yuseong Chemical, who was indicted on charges of selling the cleaning agent containing toxic chemicals to the two companies, was requested to be sentenced to three years in prison, and the corporation was fined 30 million won.
The prosecutor stated the reason for the request, saying, "Although the companies using the cleaning agents have workplaces of considerable size, they failed to properly establish safety and health systems such as exhaust ventilation facilities, causing workers using the cleaning agents to suffer toxic injuries."
Regarding the selling companies, the prosecutor said, "They falsely prepared and provided material safety data sheets containing information about the names and contents of hazardous substances while selling cleaning agents containing toxic substances. As a result, employees used the cleaning agents without properly understanding the hazardous substances and suffered toxic poisoning, which is a serious offense."
This case is the first application of the Serious Accident Punishment Act for occupational diseases and the first indictment under this law since its enforcement. The verdict is scheduled to be delivered at 10:30 a.m. on November 1.
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