NEWS加湿器家の中のセウォル号レキット・ベンキーザー

韓国の加湿器殺菌剤事件、元代表ら4人逮捕【家の中のセウォル号事件】

韓国政府は、被害者は221人でそのうち95人が死亡したと発表している。
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YONGIN, SOUTH KOREA - MAY 06: Kwon Mi-ae, mother of Lim Seong-joon, 13, who is suffering from chronic lung disease, comforts him after he was feeling a light nausea while at their home on May 6, 2016 in Yongin, South Korea. His mother bought a humidifier sterilizer called 'Oxy Humidifier on Duty' back in 2003, and used the product with a humidifier for more than a year, subsequently damaging the lungs of Seong-joon. Seong-joon has gone through operations and now is living off of an oxygen tank 24 hours a day. His mother, Kwon Mi-ae, said that she thought of killing herself many times, but decided to live for him. Beginning in 2001, Reckitt Benckiser Korea (known as Oxy prior to 2014) used Polyhexamethylene guanidine (PHMG) in a humidifier sterilizer product called Oxy Ssak Ssak; the ingredient was dropped in 2011 when the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) published a report showing a link between the compound and lung damage and deaths. Several companies in South Korea made humidifier sterliizers with poisonous ingredients between 2001 and 2011. According to a BBC report in May 2016, about 500 people, many of them women and children, are reported to have died or been injured after inhaling these ingredients. One of the victims's fathers is visiting U.K. right now, and a few other victims's families are planning to visit the U.K. at the end of May. The U.K.-based firm Reckitt Benckiser has admitted and apologized for selling a humidifier disinfectant that killed more than 100 people in South Korea on May 2, 2016. (Photo by Jean Chung/Getty Images)
YONGIN, SOUTH KOREA - MAY 06: Kwon Mi-ae, mother of Lim Seong-joon, 13, who is suffering from chronic lung disease, comforts him after he was feeling a light nausea while at their home on May 6, 2016 in Yongin, South Korea. His mother bought a humidifier sterilizer called 'Oxy Humidifier on Duty' back in 2003, and used the product with a humidifier for more than a year, subsequently damaging the lungs of Seong-joon. Seong-joon has gone through operations and now is living off of an oxygen tank 24 hours a day. His mother, Kwon Mi-ae, said that she thought of killing herself many times, but decided to live for him. Beginning in 2001, Reckitt Benckiser Korea (known as Oxy prior to 2014) used Polyhexamethylene guanidine (PHMG) in a humidifier sterilizer product called Oxy Ssak Ssak; the ingredient was dropped in 2011 when the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) published a report showing a link between the compound and lung damage and deaths. Several companies in South Korea made humidifier sterliizers with poisonous ingredients between 2001 and 2011. According to a BBC report in May 2016, about 500 people, many of them women and children, are reported to have died or been injured after inhaling these ingredients. One of the victims's fathers is visiting U.K. right now, and a few other victims's families are planning to visit the U.K. at the end of May. The U.K.-based firm Reckitt Benckiser has admitted and apologized for selling a humidifier disinfectant that killed more than 100 people in South Korea on May 2, 2016. (Photo by Jean Chung/Getty Images)
Jean Chung via Getty Images

韓国で販売された加湿器の殺菌剤により200人以上の死傷者が出た、いわゆる「家の中のセウォル号」事件で、ソウル中央地方検察庁は5月14日、殺菌剤を製造・販売したイギリスに本社を置く「レキット・ベンキーザー」社韓国法人の元代表ら3人と別の会社の代表1人を業務上過失致死傷の疑いで逮捕した。朝日新聞デジタルなどが報じた。この問題で関係者が逮捕されたのは初めて。

NHKニュースによると、この問題は、2001年から2011年に韓国で販売された、加湿器に使用する殺菌剤に含まれてていた殺菌剤によって、乳児らが被害を受けたもの。韓国政府は、被害者は221人でそのうち95人が死亡したと発表している。

韓国で販売されたオキシー・レキットベンキーザー社の加湿器殺菌剤

およそ10年間にわたって有害な化学物質、PHMG（ポリヘキサメチレングアニジン）入りの殺菌剤が販売されていたにもかかわらず、対応を怠った政府に対する批判の声も高まっている。こうした政府の不作為を、修学旅行中の高校生ら300人以上が犠牲になった旅客船セウォル号の沈没事故になぞらえ、韓国では「家の中のセウォル号」とも呼ばれている。

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