|
 During an emotional news conference on Monday in Seoul, the head of
the company's South Korean unit accepted responsibility, although
some victims and their families and supporters said it came too
late.
Ata Safdar, head of Reckitt Benckiser in South Korea and Japan,
bowed several times in apology. As he spoke, a man stepped on to the
stage shouting expletives and slapped him on the back of the neck.
South Korea said last year that 92 people were believed to have died
from causes related to the humidifier products - not all of them
made by Oxy Reckitt Benckiser, the former name of the group's South
Korean arm.
South Korea says 530 people registered claims of lung ailments from
using humidifier sterilizers made by various companies. The
government banned the products, which it believes were only sold in
South Korea, in 2011.
Humidifiers are widely used in offices and homes across north Asia
where the winters are dry. The sterilizers, in liquid form, were
added to the water.
"This is not an issue just for the Korean branch and the victims but
for the head of the main office to get on his knees and apologize to
the victims," Choi Ye-yong, who heads the Asian Citizens' Center for
Environment and Health, told reporters on Wednesday.
Lotte Mart, part of Lotte Shopping and one of South Korea's biggest
discount store chains, stopped ordering Reckitt Benckiser products
from Wednesday, company spokesman Yoon Ji-yoon told Reuters.
Lotte Mart was among supermarket chains that sold since-banned
humidifier sterilizers under their own brand, and last month made
its own public apology.
South Korean e-commerce companies Coupang and Ticketmonster Inc said
on Wednesday they would stop selling Reckitt Benckiser products. Its
global brands include Dettol antiseptic wash and Durex condoms.
South Korean prosecutors, who have opened a criminal investigation
into makers of the sterilizers, arrested a university professor on
suspicion of fabricating data in a report for Oxy Reckitt Benckiser,
a prosecution official involved in the case told Reuters.
The South Korean unit of Reckitt Benckiser did not have immediate
comment when asked about the arrest, although Safdar said on Monday
the company does not "condone wrongful behavior" and that it was
cooperating with prosecutors.
[to top of second column] |
Choi and Kim Deok-jong, the father of a five-year-old boy who died
in 2009 from lung disease linked by the South Korean government to
the use of humidifier sterilizers, plan a protest at Thursday's
Reckitt Benckiser shareholders' meeting in London, the activist
group said.
Reckitt Benckiser spokeswoman Patty O'Hayer said in London the
company respected everybody's right to demonstrate.
"We have stepped up and acknowledged our responsibility in this
tragedy and are working hard to make amends and to address the
issues of all those who have been impacted," she told Reuters by
phone.
The company's South Korea unit generated 2014 sales of 257 billion
won ($223 million), according to online data citing NICE Information
Service. Reckitt Benckiser Korea declined to provide local sales
figures, although globally the group posted revenue of 8.87 billion
pounds ($12.9 billion) in 2015.
"We have accepted full responsibility for the role that this product
played in these health issues, including deaths, in Korea and while
we acknowledge that we cannot repair the harm that has been done, we
have stated our continuing intention to do whatever we can to
provide full resolution to these cases," Reckitt Benckiser said on
its website after Monday's apology.
According to Reckitt Benckiser, the humidifier sterilizer product
was launched in South Korea in 1996 by Oxy, a company it bought in
2001 to form Oxy RB. The local company's name was changed in 2014 to
Reckitt Benckiser Korea.
($1 = 1,154.1000 won)
($1 = 0.6878 pounds)
(Additional reporting by Jee Heun Kahng in SEOUL and Martinne Geller
in LONDON; Editing by Tony Munroe and Nick Macfie)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
