The Korea Consumer Agency on Friday urged Koreans to refrain from using humidifier sterilizers, which have been blamed for mysterious deaths of five infants and a pregnant woman.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is looking into 28 cases of lung disease with an unidentified cause that occurred at a university-affiliated hospital in Seoul since 2004. Many of them were reported this year.
The KCDC said some tests prove that a harmful substance in a sterilizer ― used by all the patients to clean their humidifiers ― could seriously damage lung cells when inhaled.
People who used the germicide were 47.3 times more inclined to suffer lung damage than those who did not, KCDC said last month.
The state-run KCA said its alert is based on the KCDC’s interim findings and chiefly aimed at large facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes and child care and postnatal centers.
“We plan to launch a fact-finding probe into the sterilizer as soon as the harmfulness of the product becomes more evident,” the KCA said in a statement, advising humidifier users to change water and rinse the tank every day instead of adopting any disinfectants.
Civic groups and lawmakers have been pushing the government and health authorities to disclose the makers of the sterilizer.
“The KCDC’s investigation is restricted to a single hospital but the phenomenon has been reported nationwide, many of which involve young children,” said Asian Citizen’s Center for Environmental Health.
“This resulted from chemical abuse and is a clear case of biocide. There would be a lot more unknown damage elsewhere.”
Rep. Jeon Hyun-hee of the main opposition Democratic Party also called on the government to order recalls of the sterilizer during a parliamentary audit last week.
“Citizens are in imminent danger of lung damage because the sterilizers are still on the shelves in markets across the country.”
But Health and Welfare Minister Lim Chae-min dismissed her claim, saying the inspection was still under way.
By Shin Hyon-hee (
heeshin@heraldcorp.com)
