Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Erratum: Need for individual-based evaluation to determine the association between humidifier disinfectants and health injuries: Hyeong-Cheol Kim, Hyunil Kim, Eun-Chan Mun, Yesung Lee, Soyoung Park; Ann Occup Environ Med 2021;33:e28. Published online August 19, 2021; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2021.33.e28

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Need for individual-based evaluation to determine the association between humidifier disinfectants and health injuries: Hyeong-Cheol Kim, Hyunil Kim, Eun-Chan Mun, Yesung Lee, Soyoung Park; Ann Occup Environ Med 2021;33:e21. Published online June 18, 2021; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2021.33.e21

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Background

Injuries caused by humidifier disinfectants (HDs) can no longer be grouped under the concept of HD lung injury. Focusing on individual cases, we were able to evaluate the relevance not only of diseases for which epidemiological correlation is recognized but also all diseases and symptoms that the victims complain of.

Methods

In-depth interviews and reassessment of 113 HD-exposed patients who had not been acknowledged as victims by the government were conducted, and their medical records were reviewed. Based on these processes, an assessment questionnaire for the injuries related to HDs was completed and the involvement of HDs was assessed either as “strong association,” “association,” or “no association.”

Results

In this study, of the 113 patients included who claimed damages, 78 (69.0%) had HD-related injuries. Among the cases of 22 patients who applied for injury acknowledgment due to upper respiratory inflammation that was not included among the acknowledged diseases, 17 (77.3%) were judged to be HD-related injuries (strong association vs. association: 10 [45.5%] vs. 7 [31.8%]). When the cases of 12 rhinitis patients were reassessed, 9 were HD-related injuries (strong association vs. association: 4 [33.3%] vs. 5 [41.7%]). When the cases of 18 asthma patients unacknowledged as a victim were reassessed, 17 (94.4%) were humidifier-related injuries (strong association vs. association: 12 [66.6%] vs. 5 [27.8%]). Among 4 interstitial lung disease patients unacknowledged as a victim, 2 (50.0%) were HD-related injuries.

Conclusions

HD-related health injuries should be assessed through both individual interviews and detailed chart reviews for more accurate injury acknowledgment. In the future, efforts should go beyond existing methods based on the adherence to acknowledgment criteria to directly listen to the victims.

Citations

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Journal of Korean Medical Science.2022;[Epub] CrossRef

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Mental health impact on a humidifier disinfectant disaster victim: a case report: Ye-Sung Lee, Min-Woo Nam, Hyun-Il Kim, Hyeong-Cheol Kim, Eun-Chan Mun, So-Young Park; Ann Occup Environ Med 2020;32:e15. Published online June 1, 2020; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2020.32.e15

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In Korea, the cause of lung disease of unknown origin was identified as humidifier disinfectants in November 2011. In February 2017, the ‘Special Act on Remedy for Damage Caused by Humidifier Disinfectants’ was promulgated. Even though emotional and mental injuries caused by humidifier disinfectants have been reported, the focus of the special act has been on physical injury only, and criteria for recognizing mental health impact have not been considered. This case considers emotional and mental injury caused by humidifier disinfectants. After a humidifier disinfectant was used from January 2005 to April 2006, the patient's son aged 20 months was hospitalized with respiratory symptoms, and he died within two weeks. Also, the patient was hospitalized for a month with the same symptoms, and then she led a normal life with no symptoms. After both mother and son were diagnosed with definite (level 1) humidifier disinfectant lung injury (HDLI) in 2017, she took to drinking alcohol because of extreme guilt over her son's death. In March 2018 she died from acute liver failure due to alcohol use disorder. The patient's death was caused by continuous alcoholism, due to emotional and mental trauma caused by her son's death after HDLI was revealed as the cause. The government did not acknowledge her death was due to humidifier disinfectants, but the company that sold the humidifier disinfectants recognized her as a victim and compensated the family of the victim. There are still lots of psychological responses among humidifier disinfectant disaster victims. Mental health impact on humidifier disinfectant victims should be considered more carefully, and institutional improvements should be made into establish psychological interventions and measures.

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Need for individual-based evaluation to determine the association between humidifier disinfectants and health injuries
Hyeong-Cheol Kim, Hyunil Kim, Eun-Chan Mun, Yesung Lee, Soyoung Park
Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.2021;[Epub] CrossRef

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