Victims of the humidifier disinfectant disaster filed a damages claim against the manufacturer, Oxy Reckitt Benckiser (Oxy), but the court did not accept their claim.
Members of civic groups such as the Citizens' Center for Environmental Health and the Seoul Environmental Federation held a press conference related to the humidifier disinfectant disaster in front of the Admiral Yi Sun-sin statue in Gwanghwamun, Jongno-gu, Seoul, on March 11 last year. Photo by Yonhap News
The Seoul Central District Court Civil Agreement Division 30 (Presiding Judge Kim Seokbeom) ruled against the plaintiffs on the 15th in a damages lawsuit filed by 26 victims against Oxy, seeking 1.1 billion won in compensation.
Twenty-four of the plaintiffs accepted the court's recommendation for settlement on December 27 last year.
The humidifier disinfectant disaster refers to the incident in which humidifier disinfectant products, first released in 1994, caused lung damage and other health issues among users. Victims, primarily children and pregnant women, began to appear in the early 2000s, but the cases remained classified as "unknown lung diseases." It was only after an epidemiological investigation by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2011 that a causal relationship between the disinfectant and lung damage was confirmed.
In January 2018, a former CEO of Oxy was sentenced to six years in prison by the Supreme Court for charges including involuntary manslaughter due to professional negligence.
On December 24 last year, the government announced that it would designate the humidifier disinfectant incident as a "social disaster." The government plans to shift from the existing victim relief system to a compensation system based on state responsibility, calculating and providing compensation for medical expenses, damages for pain and suffering, and other related costs.
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