[속보]’Disinfectant humidifier’ Former representative of SK Chemicals and Aekyung Industrial ‘Innocent’

The former CEO of SK Chemicals and former CEO of Aekyung Industrial, who were put on trial for making a disinfectant humidifier from chemicals that are toxic when inhaled by humans, were acquitted in the first trial.

The 23rd Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Judge Young-geun Yoo) sentenced Ji-ho Hong (71), former CEO of SK Chemicals, and Yong-chan Ahn (62), the former CEO from Aekyung Industries (62).

The judge said: “There is no evidence to admit a causal relationship between the use of chloromethylisothiazolinone-based disinfecting humidifiers (CMIT) and the onset or worsening of lung disease and asthma in this case.”

The judge said: “The case of the disinfectant humidifier is a social tragedy that has caused tremendous damage, so it is regrettable and difficult to analyze this case. There is a lot of difference between humidifying disinfectant and harmfulness. “He added:” I don’t know what kind of evaluation will be received historically when more research results come out, but the judge has no choice but to judge within the scope of the fundamental principles of justice criminal based on the evidence so far. “

SK Chemicals manufactured a disinfecting humidifier ‘Humidifier Mate’ with CMIT and Methylisothiazolinone (MIT), which are toxic chemicals by inhalation. Aekyung Industrial sold ‘Humidifier Mate’.

In the process of manufacturing and selling the ‘matte humidifier’ from 2002 to 2011, former CEO Hong was arrested in May 2019 on charges of inflicting human injury for failing to verify safety by objective and scientific methods (negligence in the workplace ). For the same charge, Ahn was tried without custody in June of the same year.

‘Humidifier Mate’, which killed 12 people and injured 87, made the most of the victims after ‘Oxyssack Humidifier’. However, officials from SK Chemicals and Aekyung Industries, which manufactured and sold ‘Humidifier Mate’, because the harmfulness of CMIT and MIT was not clearly demonstrated, were not charged in the first investigation of humidifier disinfectants in 2016. The former CEO Shin Hyun-woo, who sold the ‘Oxy Sprout Humidifier’, was sentenced to six years in prison in the Supreme Court in January 2018.

However, in the second investigation that began in November 2018 when the victims reconsidered officials from SK Chemicals and Aekyung Industries, the legal mandate was not avoided. In July 2019, the Second Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office (Chief Prosecutor Kwon Soon-Jung) announced the results of a new investigation of humidifying disinfectants over a period of eight months, prosecuting a total of 34 people, including CEO Hong and CEO Ahn. The prosecution turned over former Aekyung Industrial representative Ko Kwang-hyun and SK Chemicals Vice President Park Chul to trial on charges of destroying evidence related to the humidifying disinfectant during the investigation.

Choi Mo, Secretary of the Ministry of the Environment, accused of receiving money and gifts worth millions of won from Aekyung Industrial and providing data from the Ministry of the Environment related to the humidifying disinfectant to Aekyung (post-filing). Yang Mo, an aide to a former member of the National Assembly accused of returning money to a broker to prevent it, was also brought to trial.

Some cases have been sentenced to the Supreme Court. The late representative of Aekyung Industrial was sentenced to two years in prison and Yang, a former aide to the National Assembly, was sentenced to two years in prison. Choi, secretary of the Ministry of the Environment, who was sentenced to prison in October in the second trial and detained by the court, is being tried on appeal.