Household goods manufacturer Oxy Reckitt Benckiser, which is blamed for over 103 deaths arising from the use of toxic humidifier disinfectant, apologized Monday and vowed to establish an independent panel to compensate the victims. But the press conference was suspended briefly as victims and their families who attended erupted in anger, saying the apology came too late.

The official press conference by the company, formally renamed Reckitt Benckiser Korea, was held five years after the first death of a user of toxic humidifier disinfectant was reported in 2011.

“On behalf of Oxy RB Korea, I would like to offer a heartfelt and sincere apology to all victims and their families who have suffered injury as a result of humidifier disinfectant,” said RB Korea’s representative director Ataur Rashid Safdar in a statement read out at a press conference at Conrad Hotel in Seoul.

“If we find any evidence that we did wrongly, we will take swift and immediate collective action,” he added.
The press conference was soon interrupted by victims and their families who approached the stage in protest. Families yelled at him, saying “(an apology) is too late,” calling the firm “murderous.” One of the young victims, supported by his parents, also took to the stage, leaning against his oxygen tank.

A brief commotion occurred as some of the families waved their fists at Safdar, and press and security guards swarmed toward the stage.

“I am also a father of a son, I know the depth of your sorrow. I know (we) cannot change what happened in the past, but I would like to make (a) heartfelt and sincere apology,” Safdar said.

Victims and victims’ families also requested to meet a person from the U.K. headquarters.

Safdar vowed not to leave the Seoul office until the tragedy is resolved. He has been heading Oxy RB Korea for two years.
Regarding compensation, the firm reiterated its plan to set up funds and said it will create an independent panel comprised of experts by July 26, to discuss the exact amount to be given to victims classified one and two. Through this panel, Oxy said that the firm will inform victims of the detailed application process to receive compensation and set specific compensation standards.

Categorizing victims by the correlation between the use of humidifier disinfectant and health damage was first set by the government in 2014, in order to provide due compensation and medical treatment.

So far, there are a total of 221 victims of toxic humidifier disinfectant classified in category one and two. The scale goes from one to four with the lowest being highly certain that health damage comes from the use of humidifier disinfectant.

Oxy said the existing 5 billion won ($4.4 million) humanitarian fund stored at the Environment Ministry and additional 5 billion won fund that was announced earlier this month will be used for potential and other victims of humidifier disinfectant who are not included in their compensation plan.

The firm also asked “other manufacturers to join this compensation plan.”
According to government statistics, Oxy alone is responsible for 103 out of the 143 deaths recognized by the authorities as being caused by humidifier sterilizers.

Currently, a total of 13 manufacturers and distributors are involved in a lawsuit filed by the victims and their families. Oxy RB Korea is under prosecution investigation over the production and distribution of the toxic humidifier disinfectant, watering down product safety report and bribery to research professors in exchange for overlooking toxicity test results.

Later on Monday, some of the victims, joined by the Asian Citizen’s Center for Environment and Health and Minbyun, filed a suit against eight executive members of RB Korea’s U.K. headquarters Reckitt Benckiser PLC, including CEO Rakesh Kapoor, demanding that the prosecution summon them to Korea for investigation. They added they plan to push ahead with a group litigation at the earliest, on May 16.

The prosecution said expanding their probe to the U.K. headquarters is under review and that it is looking at emails sent between the Seoul office and U.K. headquarters as well as related officials’ documents used in meetings.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)