• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.321-325
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• 2019

The recent humidifier disinfectant disaster has caused a great change in our society and lead the Korean people to lose faith in the government and corporations. To overcome this mistrust, the government and corporations have undertaken certain efforts, including a voluntary agreement on consumer product safety. All the ingredients of a consumer product should be disclosed according to this voluntary agreement. There were also unexpected benefits occuring from this process. We found that the concept of corporate responsibility for product safety differed greatly among the various actors in Korean society. Corporations believed that a product could be considered safe if it contained no regulated substances. We have come to believe that this may be an important cause of the humidifier disinfectant disaster. The Korean government, corporations, and civil organizations have reached a consensus that it is a corporation's responsibility to evaluate the risks of products before they are introduced to the market. However, the limitations of these voluntary efforts are clear, and the legal system needs to be improved. We suggest that the concept of extreme recklessness should be introduced into regulations on product safety.