• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.10 no.9
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• pp.69-74
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to compare the efficiency of bacteria removal of three different types of hand washing methods. This study performed a convenient sampling of 30 volunteers in cross-over design. The study divided the 30 volunteers into three random groups. The three groups were asked to use antiseptic soap, alcohol-based hand disinfectant, and disposable wet wipes respectively. The result of the study showed that mean log reduction values after each had washing method were $-0.45({\pm}0.69)$ with antiseptic soap and water, $-1.19({\pm}0.52)$ with alcohol-based hand disinfectant and $-0.75({\pm}0.58)$ with disposable wet wipes. The difference was statistically significant when using alcohol-based hand disinfectant compared to the other two methods (p=0.000). According to this study, alcohol-based hand disinfectant was the most effective product based on bacteria removal for hand washing. Advantages of using alcohol-based hand disinfectant are that it is cost-effective and easy to buy, also eco-friendly. Therefore, to prevent infectious disease, providing alcohol-based hand disinfectant to every corner of the community will be very helpful.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.193-204
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• 2021

Objectives: In January 2021, the former heads of the manufacturer SK Chemical and the vendor Aekyung were acquitted for manufacturing and selling humidifier disinfectant (HD) containing 5-chloro-2-methylisothiazol-3(2H)-one/2-methylisothiazol-3(2H)-one (CMIT/MIT). In this article, we analyzed the rationale used in this judgement in the light of scientific consideration. Methods: The sentencing document for the judgements was obtained from the Korea Supreme Court Service. In particular, the judgements made by the court related to the toxicological and individual association with HD perspectives were discussed based on scientific evidence. Results: The ruling stated that the necessary conditions for causality between CMIT/MIT and such diseases were not met based on the fact that asthma and lung damage were not found in the inhalation exposure animal experiments. The judgment overlooked the inevitable limitations of using animal experiments for verifying health effects in humans, which are often inconsistent with the observations in animals. Among 11 governmentaffirmed lung injury cases with CMIT/MIT usage, three patients' humidifier disinfectant-associated lung injury (HDLI) pathology proved that CMIT/MIT could cause lung injury similar to that caused by PHMG and PGH. In addition, five children showed decreased lung function related to damage caused by humidifier disinfectant exposure. Conclusions: We conclude that there is sufficient evidence supporting the assertion that HDs containing CMIT/MIT cause lung injuries, including asthma, contrary to the court's decision.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.303-309
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• 2021

Background: Humidifier disinfectant is a biocidal product used in the water tanks of humidifiers to prevent the growth of microorganisms. Although there are a huge number of cases of reported humidifier disinfectant-related health effects across the entire Korean population, their numbers are distributed differently depending on the region. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the regional distribution of enrollment cases who reported humidifier disinfectant-related health effects. Methods: This study used data on 6,240 subjects who experienced humidifier disinfectant-related health effects and who enrolled their cases which is conducted by the Korea Ministry of Environment. We examined the regional distribution of the enrolled cases based on sixteen administrative divisions and assessed the: 1) crude number; 2) proportional rate; and 3) age-standardized proportional rate of enrollment by region. Results: When we examined the crude number of enrollments by region, the highest number were in Gyeonggi-do Province (n=1,896), followed in order by Seoul (n=1,405), Incheon (n=436) Busan, Daegu, Gyeongsangnam-do Province, Daejeon, Chungcheongnam-do Province, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, Jeollabuk-do Province, Gwangju, Chungcheongbuk-do Province, Gangwon-do Province, Jeollanam-do Province, Ulsan, and Jeju-do. When we examined proportional rate of the regional enrollment (cases per 100,000 population), Daejeon (n=16.2) was the region with the highest rate, followed in order by Gyeonggi-do Province (n=16.1), Incheon-do Province (n=15.9), Seoul, Daegu, Gwangju, Jeollabuk-do Province, Chungcheongnam-do Province, Busan, Chungcheongbuk-do Province, Gangwon-do Province, Gyeongsanbuk-do Province, Gyeongsangnam-do Province, Ulsan, Jeju-do, and Jeollanam-do Province, which is inconsistent with the order in terms of crude numbers. However, when we examined the age-standardized proportional rate of regional enrollment (cases per 100,000 population), their ranked distribution is consistent with the crude rate. Conclusions: This study observed that the regional distribution of the enrolled cases who reported humidifier disinfectant-related health effects is inconsistent with the regional distribution of the proportional rate of enrollment cases, which may be caused in part by the volume of the inherent population of each region.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2022

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to reveal the circumstances under which the cases of harm to health caused by humidifier disinfectant were neglected and show the points where the number of victims and the degree of damage could have been reduced. In addition, it attempts to describe how damage management proceeded immediately after the incident and actually exacerbated the damage. Finally, it explores the unfortunate aspects of the recent trial. By doing so, it attempts to take this as an opportunity to consider whether a tragic event such as the humidifier disinfectant incident could occur in the future. Methods: This study collected and analyzed data on chemical material characteristics related to humidifier disinfectants, data on health effect characteristics, data on related laws and regulations from the Ministry of Environment, data related to the damage investigation by the Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute, and current contents. Results: The lack of related systems and laws is the area where the greatest responsibility for the cause of the humidifier disinfectant disaster falls, so it is difficult for the government to escape this responsibility. Establishing a dedicated department to identify the prevalence of certain diseases within the functions of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service to monitor health can greatly contribute to the prevention and management of diseases through early detection and management of group outbreaks caused by harmful factors. Humidifier disinfectant damage relief should have been expanded earlier beyond HDLI (humidifier disinfectant lung injury) to include non-specific diseases such as asthma, pneumonia, and interstitial pneumonia. The scope of relief benefits should have also been expanded earlier to include the payment of disability benefits. Fortunately, with the 2020 revision of the Special Act, the conditions for estimating causal relations were eased and individual screening systems such as health impact assessment were reorganized along with the introduction of a rapid screening system. Conclusions: The management system for chemical substances in a country is clearly of paramount importance, and the ministry in charge must have a response system in case of damage to health effects. Administration that looks at the victims' situation from their point of view is needed, and technical countermeasures are required to quickly recognize the prevalence of certain diseases.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.31
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• pp.25.1-25.9
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• 2016

Objectives After the initial investigations by the Korea Centers for Disease Control in 2011, over 1000 suspicious cases of humidifier disinfectant (HD) victims were subsequently reported by 2015, and numbers are still increasing dramatically in 2016 in the midst of the prosecutors' office investigation. This study attempts to summarize the current understandings of the related health effects of HD based upon a systemic review of published epidemiologic studies and toxicology investigations. Methods Published studies of HDs were searched through PubMed and TOXLINE under the search words 'humidifier disinfectant,' and related reports were identified from the references and published report list of regulatory agencies including the Korean National Institute of Environmental Research, US Environmental Protection Agency, and EU European Chemicals Agency. Results Case reports and epidemiologic studies have reported the clinical features of severe forms of HD lung damage, together with epidemiologic findings of seasonal occurrence and demographic variations, including the heightened susceptibility of young children. Toxicological studies have reported inhalation toxicities together with positive findings of in vitro genotoxicity studies. Conclusions This study examined unsolved issues based on cases of upper respiratory diseases and diseases of other organs, including cancers, among suspected victims of HDs. These issues should be clarified in future research for the management and prevention of health effects from HDs and chemicals of other related household products.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.107-114
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• 2018

Objectives: The objectives of this study are to describe strategy for exposure assessment of humidifier disinfectant (HD) used in the national program to associate the use of HD with lung injury. Methods: Strategy and method employed to evaluate HD use characteristics were developed to associate health effects including HD associated with lung injury (HDLI). We developed HD-specific questionnaire to assess potential HD exposure, which was consistently used in the national program. Trained environmental health scientists visited the residences of registered subjects and investigated HD use characteristics. Results: Major HD exposure related variables were type of HD brand/s used; HD volume added to the humidifier, frequency of HD addition, and time spent in room/s with the humidifier; duration of HD use in the household in average months/year, weeks/month, and days/week; average sleeping hours in a room with an operating humidifier containing a disinfectant; number of HD brands used and type of HD; average distance of the bed from the humidifier in meters. Conclusions: We concluded that estimated airborne HD concentration was significantly associated with the risk of HDLI.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.365-374
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• 2016

Objectives: Studies are needed to examine the characteristics of health effects reported by people who used humidifier disinfectant (HD), including the distribution of victims. Methods: We analyzed the distribution of health effects including lung injury that were asserted by a total of 699 individuals who registered with the first through third national programs to determine health effects associated with the use of HD. Results: We found that HD-associated lung injury (HDLI) occurred every year from 2002 through 2011, and in 2011 for 37.2% (n=96) of the total of 258 clinically evaluated HDLI victims. More than half of the victims responded that they were victimized between 2010 and 2011. This was consistent among all classifications by sex, age, HD brand and HD chemical ingredient. Conclusion: This study assumed that the major reason for the outbreak of the health effect between 2010 and 2011 could be the variations in concentrations and physical properties related to polyhexamethylene guanidine (PHMG). Further studies are necessary to examine if some factors related to the chemical disinfectants contained in HD brands may have caused the massive outbreak of health effects including HDLI.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.9 no.7
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• pp.985-989
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• 1998

In this study, removal efficiencies of pesticides on apples and peppers with water, dishwashing detergent, and alcoholic disinfectant were investigated by Gas Chromatography. Different conditions of pretreatment for increase of pesticide recovery were investigated for optimum condition. In our experiment, the supelco-STB-608 column and electron capture detector(ECD) were used to analyze pesticides residue. Removal efficiency of pesticide was in the order of alcoholic disinfectant>dishwashing detergent>water.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.482-487
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• 2011

Salmonellosis and brucellosis have caused a considerable danger of farmed animals and economic loss in animal farming industry. In this study, the disinfection efficacy of Citra-Kill$^{(R)}$, a commercial disinfectant, composed to quaternary ammonium chloride and citric acid was evaluated against S. typhimurium and Brucella ovis. A bactericidal efficacy test by broth dilution method was used to determine the lowest effective dilution of the disinfectant following exposure to test bacteria for 30 min at $4^{\circ}C$. Citra-Kill$^{(R)}$ and test bacteria were diluted with distilled water (DW), hard water (HW) or organic matter suspension (OM) according to treatment condition. On OM condition, the bactericidal activity of Citra-Kill$^{(R)}$ against S. typhimurium and Brucella ovis was lowered compared to that on HW condition. As Citra-Kill$^{(R)}$ possesses bactericidal efficacy against animal pathogenic bacteria such as S. typhimurium and Brucella ovis, this disinfectant solution can be used to control the spread of animal bacterial diseases.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.409-420
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• 2018

Objectives: An outbreak of humidifier disinfectant-related respiratory disease has not only been a massive disaster for end users, but it is also a concern for the workers of the manufacturers. This study presents the results of a questionnaire survey on the health effects among workers involved in the manufacture of humidifier disinfectants. Methods: Seven sites where humidifier disinfectants were manufactured were identified. A questionnaire survey was conducted to assess the physical symptoms experienced by workers related to humidifier disinfectants. Among a total of 177 workers, 42 subjects were available for the survey. Results: Twenty-one of the 42 respondents reported that they experienced respiratory or skin and mucosal irritation symptoms during work. Of the respondents who experienced symptoms, 14 believed that their symptoms were related to the work process and reported that the symptoms were experienced while working. However, no respondents reported ongoing symptoms or sequelae during the investigation period, and this result could not minimize selection bias due to low response rates. We then compared the characteristics of the group who experienced suspicious symptoms with those of the group without any symptoms. There was no statistically significant difference between two groups. Conclusions: We could not find significant health effects related to the humidifier disinfectant manufacturing process, although 21 respondents experienced stimulant symptoms and 14 respondents believed that the symptoms were related to the work process. Due to the long period of time after occupational exposure and the lack of data, there were many limitations to this study. However, this is one of the few follow-up investigations of workers related to this large-scale disaster in South Korea and the limitations of this study highlight the need to follow up with a nationwide database rather than an occasional survey.