[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] A court ruled that Oxy and humidifier disinfectant manufacturers should pay alimony to victims diagnosed with asthma after using Oxy Reckitt Benckiser (oxy) humidifier disinfectants.

This is the first time that the liability for compensation for the sale and manufacture of humidifier disinfectants for asthma, not for pulmonary fibrosis, has been legally recognized.

The Civil Affairs Agreement Department 14 (Director Seo Bo-min) at the Seoul Central District Court ruled on the 13th that Oxy and Hanbit Chemical should jointly pay 2,000 million won in the first trial of a damage suit filed by Shin against Oxy (manufacturer and seller), Hanbit Chemical (raw material manufacturer) and the government (in charge of management) on behalf of her 17-year-old daughter with asthma. The claim against the government was dismissed.

Ms. A was diagnosed with pneumonia and asthma at the hospital in 2009 and 2010. Since then, his physical condition has deteriorated sharply, and in 2014, he even cut off a part of his right lung, but only continued hospital treatment without finding a clear cause. It was not until similar damage continued across the country that Shin learned that Oxy's humidifier disinfectant, which his daughter had been using for a long time, was a problem.

In January 2017, the Ministry of Environment established and operated a damage relief committee as a special law for humidifier disinfectant damage relief was enacted. Ms. A was not initially recognized for relief for lung disease, but later applied for the change of the disease to asthma and was notified by the committee. However, Shin was unable to receive any mental damage compensation from Oxy except for committee-level relief pay.

In the end, Shin filed a compensation suit against Oxy and Hanbit Chemical in 2019. He also filed alimony against the government for management responsibility. During the trial, Oxy denied the causal relationship between the humidifier disinfectant and the asthma outbreak, but when a government research institute published a paper that recognized causality, it countered with the logic that "A's asthma is a pre-existing disease." However, this claim has also lost its power as the Korean Medical Association's Appraisal Board released an appraisal result of 'new asthma'.

 

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