The National Assembly and the government are moving to draft legislation after allegations surfaced that auto battery maker DN Automotive administered heavy-metal chelation drugs to workers. The push aims to close a gap in the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which carries no penalty provisions for using drugs to evade threshold levels in special health examinations.
According to the National Assembly on the 14th, Rep. Kim Tae-sun of the Democratic Party of Korea and Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon agreed during an audit of the Ministry of Employment and Labor by the Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee on the 13th to review the chelation allegations at DN Automotive and prepare institutional safeguards. Workers were allegedly told that drugs promoting lead excretion were "vitamin shots" and given the injections to temporarily lower blood lead levels and avoid exceeding the threshold in special health examinations.
Asked by Rep. Kim whether the current law allows for punishment, the minister said there was a "legislative gap." With no penalty provisions under the act, the ministry sought legal advice on charges including obstruction of business and violations of the Medical Service Act, and referred the case to police.
Rep. Kim cited U.S. standards and the position of Korean academics in arguing for a revision. He said regulations of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration state that an employer shall ensure that no person it employs, supervises or controls administers prophylactic chelation to any worker under any circumstances. "The rule requires improving the lead exposure environment at the workplace itself, not lowering the readings with drugs," he said. The Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Medicine has also stated that chelation therapy is not recommended and that the risks of side effects, including kidney toxicity and depletion of essential minerals, far outweigh any benefit. "Even at a blood lead level of 25 micrograms per deciliter, where there are no symptoms, the side effects of the drugs are greater, and DN Automotive committed a serious wrong with the threshold at 35 micrograms per deciliter," Rep. Kim said.
When Rep. Kim asked whether the ministry would cooperate with a revision bill he is preparing to close the penalty gap, the minister said he would "actively cooperate" and that "this case will be addressed through the system."
Further fact-finding and on-site inspections will follow. The minister said inspections had begun at 14 workplaces. Rep. Kim said "all sorts of methods are emerging to pass special health examinations," and asked the ministry to confirm whether there was organized involvement at the two of the 14 sites under suspicion and to conduct a full survey of lead risks. The minister nodded in agreement. "The gap in the Occupational Safety and Health Act is a fact," he said. "This matter is a grave challenge to the management system the law prescribes, so we will examine it thoroughly."
The ministry has already taken administrative and judicial action against DN Automotive. Immediately after receiving a tip about the injections in late January, it verified the facts and carried out a safety and health inspection and detailed workplace environment measurements. It identified a total of 68 violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act at DN Automotive's Ulsan plant, booked and referred the case to prosecutors, and imposed fines of 46.2 million won. From April 21 to May 7, it ordered a suspension of operations in processes involving lead exposure.
President Lee Jae-myung issued sharp criticism over the controversy for a second straight day. "Workers who do their jobs are not livestock. How can they be deceived into being injected with drugs that forcibly flush out heavy metals?" he said at a Cabinet meeting on the 13th. "This is something that cannot happen in 21st-century Korea."