Cigarette consumption rebounds (Korea herald)

Cigarette consumption rebounds (Korea herald)

is policy failure really unexpected?

#Korea #Cigarette #rebound


Cigarette sales rebounded in the first quarter of this year, after a sharp decline early last year due to an increase in prices, according to a Yonhap news report.

The report, which compiled data from several financial investment firms, said about 17.7 billion sticks of cigarettes were sold in the first three months of this year, a 40.4 percent increase from the 12.6 billion sticks sold in the same period last year.

The government’s increase of the tax on cigarettes by 2,000 won per pack in January last year had led to a sharp fall in quarterly sales by 35.1 percent.

The sales increase was unexpected as the nation’s cigarette consumption has diminished since 2000, industry watchers said.

South Korea’s Decrease in Population, More Serious than Japan (kyunghyang)

[20 Years of the Population Cliff: Lessons from Japan]
South Korea’s Decrease in Population, More Serious than Japan

 

#Korea #population #low_birthrate #aging

 

Jang (31) had worked as an after-school instructor, but recently failed to renew her contract. Although she has a boyfriend, she has no thoughts of marriage. Jang said, “I don’t earn a lot of money and my status is unstable because it’s a temporary job, so it’s difficult to think about marriage.” She said, “It’s a bit gloomy alone, but I can lower my expectations and adjust to the environment, but if I start a family, I’ll have to get a house and things will be a lot more difficult.”

Population pyramid of Sourt Korea(2020)

The fertility rate in South Korea has been extremely low, less than 1.3 children per woman (the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime), for fifteen years in a row since 2001. The government presented measures for the low birthrate and aging of our society since 2005, but the birthrate remains at the bottom among a list of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries.

South Korea’s fertility rate has sharply declined in a short period of time. The birthrate, which was 6.0 children in 1960, dropped to 2.1 children, nearly the replacement fertility rate, in 1983. Then in 1998, it dropped to 1.45 children, 1.3 children in 2001 and 1.08 children in 2005. In 2007, the fertility rate rebounded slightly to 1.25, but as of 2014 (1.21), it has yet to recover to 1.3 children.

South Korea had implemented a “basic plan for the low birthrate and an aging society” on two occasions, first in 2006-2010 and second in 2011-2015, but it failed to present an effective policy response. Jo Seong-ho, assistant research fellow at the Population Policy Research Department at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs announced in the report, “Status of and Policy for the Low Fertility Rate in South Korea and Japan” released last November, “The problem about South Korea’s policy response to the low fertility rate is that they focus on married families such as those concerning childbirth and childcare, and that the scale of the policy is too small.”

The third basic plan for the low birthrate and an aging society (2016-2020) accepted such criticism and include some measures to relieve the socio-economic reasons why young people hesitate or give up on marriage. Specifically, the plan includes measures to stimulate youth employment and strengthen housing support for newlyweds. The direction of the plans has improved, but its effectiveness still remains controversial.

Stimulating youth employment, which is the key in the government’s low birthrate measures, has as its premise the government’s “labor reforms,” but if such reforms, which have the risk of increasing employment instability by increasing the number of temporary jobs, are carried out, it is doubtful as to whether the younger generation will be able to find peace and have children. Jeong Jun-yeong, director of policy at the Youth Union said, “Measures to stimulate youth employment in the government’s third basic plan is only a low-birthrate version of the labor reforms that the Park Geun-hye government has been trying to push.”

[Newsmaker] Reckitt Benckiser apologizes, offers funds (Korea Herald)

#humidifier_disinfectant #toxicity

Amid the prosecution’s widening probe into Oxy Reckitt Benckiser Korea and other companies related to their toxic humidifier disinfectants, the British firm apologized on Thursday to victims and unveiled a plan to offer an additional 5 billion won ($4.4 million) in humanitarian assistance.

In a letter released Thursday afternoon, the company addressed its “social responsibility” in deaths and diseases caused by its humidifier sterilizers, saying it would cooperate with investigators to solve the issue as soon as possible.

“Oxy RB Korea would like to express our sincere apology to those suffering and their families for the disappointment and anxiety due to the lack of a more timely communication related to the HS issue,” the company said in the letter.

“We have a long and established safety track record and have never before faced an issue like this. Nevertheless, we deeply acknowledge and recognize our social responsibility to respond on the HS matter and we have tried hard to engage with, and listen to, the needs of victims.”

So far, the humidifier disinfectants have been blamed for claiming 228 lives in Korea for a harmful substance they contained that caused serious lung disease, with 70 percent of those having used the company’s products. The total number of injured victims reaches 1,528.

A family member of a humidifier disinfectant victim stages a protest calling for the punishment of the involved companies in front of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in southern Seoul on April 19. (Yonhap)

The statement comes three days after local supermarkets Lotte Mart and Homeplus offered an apology for their involvement in distributing the harmful disinfectants here. It is Oxy’s first press statement on the issue released in the five years since the case was first brought to light.

The Korean government confirmed in 2011 that it had found a significant association between the disease and the use of humidifier disinfectant.

Earlier in the day, an official, who was in charge of customer service for the British firm, appeared at the prosecutors’ office for questioning. Prosecutors reportedly asked the official why some posts to the company’s website left by customers complaining about the products’ side effects were removed.

The prosecutors and a team of 20 experts in medicine and pharmacy science have also reportedly confirmed the correlation, which they said will be presented as evidence in the upcoming trials. They are also studying whether the disinfectants could have caused damage to other organs aside from lungs.

The prosecution suspects Reckitt Benckiser of bribing a professor at Hoseo University to fabricate research papers in favor of the company. The firm has cited the papers to claim that its products had not resulted in the deaths of pregnant women and infants.

The prosecution expanded the probe into whether the British headquarters had approved the sales of the toxic products here. The British company has denied its involvement, saying it had been entirely the Korean subsidiary’s decision.

While the firm has maintained that it had not been aware of its products’ toxicity, the company allegedly contacted a number of victims to offer compensation in return for them not filing a lawsuit as the investigation picked up pace.

Prosecutors also said Thursday that during questioning last November they secured testimonies from company officials involved in research that they were aware of the harmfulness of the substance, but that they skipped safety tests.

According to prosecutors, Reckitt Benckiser also allegedly deleted a number of materials and safety data sheets about PHMG, which is responsible for severe illnesses and deaths, from its computers.

Prosecutors plan to summon researchers and executives at the company involved in manufacturing the products next week.

Meanwhile, victims of toxic humidifier sterilizer plan to file a class action lawsuit against the products’ manufacturers and distributors to seek compensation, an environmental group said.

The Asian Citizen’s Center for Environment and Health said that it will hold a meeting with the victims and their families on Sunday to form a group of litigants and discuss their plans for the lawsuit.

The victims are targeting Reckitt Benckiser and local distributors, including Lotte Mart and Home Plus, involved in manufacturing and selling the humidifier disinfectants in Korea.

“We will discuss the amount of compensation we will seek and receive applications to form a group of litigants,” said Lim Heung-kyu, an official at the center. “Our primary purpose for the lawsuit is to make sure that those classified as having suffered less directly from the products also get due compensation.”

The Environment Ministry decided to classify the victims into four groups in accordance with the level of correlation between their disease and the use of disinfectant. It is set to compensate 200 of the victims who fell into the first two groups highly affected by the products.

The center will raise funds to help the victims and their families as a whole rather than compensating individuals, he said. It plans to build a private research center and file a compensation suit in a British Court against Reckitt Benckiser.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)

Victims eye class-action lawsuit against humidifier sterilizer producers, sellers

#humidifier_sterilizer #toxicity #lawsuit

 

SEOUL. April 21 (Yonhap) — A group of people victimized by toxic humidifier sterilizers plan to bring a class-action lawsuit against the products’ manufacturers and distributors to seek unspecified damages, an environment civic group said Thursday.

The Seoul-based Asian Citizen’s Center for Environment and Health said it will convene a meeting of the victims and their families on Sunday to discuss the planned lawsuit and form a group of litigants for the lawsuit.

The lawsuit will be filed by the victims who have yet to sue individually to seek compensation. The companies targeted are British firm Oxy Reckitt Benckiser, Lotte Mart and other domestic and overseas companies involved in the manufacturing and distribution of the products in question.

“We will discuss the amount of the damages with them if (the class-action lawsuit) is formalized at the meeting,” said Lim Heung-kyu, an official at the center. “We will try to make the group of litigants as large as we can.”

The humidifiers disinfectant case, one of the worst scandals involving consumer products using chemicals, came to light after four pregnant women died of lung problems for unknown reasons in a row in 2011.

The authorities have said there is a connection between the deaths of more than a hundred people who died from lung failure and the germicides they used in sterilizing household humidifiers.

The prosecution alleged that the two chemicals used in the products — PHMG Phosphate or PGH, were responsible for severe illnesses and deaths. Two other chemicals used were PHMG hydrochloride and MIT/CMIT, which the prosecution found not as harmful as the other two.

A tally compiled by the civic group said the number of victims, including 228 dead people, from the humidifier sterilizers has stood at 1,528.

Family members of people victimized by toxic humidifier sterilizers and civic group members attend a press conference at a Seoul hotel on April 18, 2016, that Lotte Mart, a major retail giant in South Korea, held to apologize to its customers. The retailer promised compensation for any damage that its humidifier sterilizer might have caused.

On Monday, Lotte Mart and Homeplus, major retail giants in South Korea, apologized to their customers, promising compensation for any damage that their humidifier sterilizer might have caused.

Civic and customer rights groups, however, doubted the sincerity in the apologies and compensation promises, claiming that the timing is suspicions in that they came too late and also just before the prosecution’s imminent move to summon their officials.

namsh@yna.co.kr

 

 

Korea’s income inequality worst in Asia (The Korea Herald)

Korea’s income inequality worst in Asia

[Graphic News] The Korea Herald

The income share of Korea’s top 10 percent earners to total earnings is the highest in Asia, according to a report released by the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday.

The IMF’s Analysis of Inequality in Asia report said Korea’s top 10 percent income class accounted for 45 percent of the country’s total income.

In 2013, the top 1 percent in emerging Asia earned 32 percent of the income share, compared to 30 percent in 1990. The share for the top decile in South Korea rose 5 percentage points over the measured period, the largest among the countries studied, reaching 12 percent in 2013.

“This development has been attributed to rapid aging, large wage gaps for regular and nonregular workers and gender occupational inequality,” the report said.

 

#Korea #income_inequality

Workers with depression can claim compensation

surprisingly, it wasn’t until now…

Workers with depression can claim compensation

By Choi Sung-jin

Employees who do emotional labor, such as sales clerks at department stores and hypermarkets, will be able to receive industrial accident compensation if they suffer from depression because of customers’ physical or verbal violence.The Ministry of Employment and Labor said a revised bill passed the National Assembly on Tuesday.

According to the modified law, the ministry has added adjustment disorders ― people experiencing social and psychological stress ― to illnesses that qualify for industrial accident compensation. So far, the relevant law has recognized only post-traumatic stress disorders.

“Now that we have included depression and adjustment disorders in the category entitled for compensation, almost all mental diseases can be covered by industrial accident insurance,” a ministry official said.

Starting in July, the law will expand to cover industrial accident insurance for certain jobs, including loan solicitors, credit card recruitment agents and relief drivers, whose numbers total 110,000 throughout the country.

#Korea #Mental_health #worker‘s_compensation

MoHW plans to toughen punishment for re-using syringes(The Korea Times)

 

Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to toughen punishment for re-using syringes

 

Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to toughen sanctions doctors who re-used disposable syringe, but is it the solution to the sequel of commercialized health care?

#iatrogenic_infection #health_care #commercialization

 

By Lee Kyung-min

The Ministry of Health and Welfare urged the National Assembly, Monday, to pass a revision to the Medical Law to strengthen punishment of doctors who re-use disposable syringes, before the provisional session of the 19th Assembly ends.The move follows the discovery of hundreds of cases of hepatitis C because of the re-use of disposable syringes at a clinic in Wonju, Gangwon Province, and Dana Clinic in southwestern Seoul.

Under the revision, doctors who inflict harm by re-using disposable medical instruments will be deprived of their medical licenses immediately, and following a trial could face up to five years in jail or a fine of 20 million won ($16,000).

The ministry will also prevent clinics from closing before it can complete an epidemiological investigation to determine the cause of the infection, and punish those found responsible.

Currently, those suspected of re-using syringes are suspended for one month.

Under the revised law, doctors could face criminal charges for professional negligence resulting in injury.

Meanwhile, the ministry said it would pay for the treatment costs of patients infected at the Wonju clinic.

The announcement came after a doctor, surnamed Roh, 59 who was under investigation for re-using disposable syringes at his clinic, was found dead last Friday before he was due to face a second round of police questioning.

“We recognize the sudden predicament of such patients and we will have talks with municipalities to provide proper support,” a ministry official said.

The ministry plans to cover treatment costs for now and to seek reimbursement after filing a civil lawsuit against Roh’s family. If the family refuses to pay, a judge can allow Roh’s property to be sold through public auction.

Earlier, the Wonju Community Health Center had asked the Korea Center of Disease Control and Prevention to pay over 6 million won per person for 245 patients who need immediate medical treatment.

According to the center, as of Monday, of 2,489 patients tested, 245 were confirmed to have the disease, up from 115, Feb. 10.

They were among the 15,433 patients suspected of being infected after receiving injections.

 

Samsung and LG electronics outsourcing their risk (Hankyoreh)

Samsung and LG electronics outsourcing their risk, leading to more methanol poisoning

Samsung Electronics

Labor groups pushing for government to create a mutually beneficial arrangement that makes accidents less likely

A recent string of on-the-job accidents involving methanol poisoning among dispatch workers is prompting calls to hold Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics accountable as main contractors.The labor community issued an open list of questions demanding that the two companies take social responsibility for the accidents, while the government has moved to introduce policies assigning greater management responsibility to main contractors.Solidarity for Workers‘ Health (SWH), the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), and other labor groups held a press conference in front of the Central Government Complex in central Seoul on Mar. 2 to call for “immediate measures by Samsung, LG, and other large mobile phone manufacturers to stop the use of harmful chemicals by their subcontractors and halt their indiscriminate outsourcing practices that pass on the risks of industrial accidents.”The open letter included questions on whether the companies were aware of the use of methanol by their subcontractors, whether they implemented monitoring for worker safety, and how they plan to respond to future methanol poisoning incidents.Since late January, five dispatch workers have suffered loss of vision and other effects of methanol poisoning at three mobile phone parts suppliers in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, and at Namdong Industrial Complex in Incheon. All of the accidents occurred at third- and fourth-level subcontracting businesses producing mobile phone parts for Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.Labor groups said the root cause of the accidents was a multi-level subcontracting structure that allowed the main contractors to sidestep their social responsibility.“These small subcontracting businesses working for electronics giants don’t have the means to prevent industrial accidents, and they use illegal dispatch labor to cut costs,” said FKTU secretary-general Choi Jae-joon, who attended the press conference. “Safety inevitably ends up on the back burner.”For safety reasons, the use of ethyl alcohol is recommended over methanol, but the cost is three times higher. The labor community’s argument is that management at small-scale subcontracting business are unlikely to use the more expensive ethyl alcohol without a mutually beneficial structure between contracting corporations and their subcontractors.The South Korean government has also been working on policies to beef up social accountability for contracting corporations. One approach has involved participation in a Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) program for “industrial safety symbiosis and cooperation” to include both main contractors and subcontracting businesses. Through this program, the Ministry of Employment and Labor plans to encourage corporations to take more social responsibility through transfers of industrial safety technology for the use of methanol and other hazardous materials, consulting on industrial accident prevention, and periodic monitoring.“The current approach, where the government cracks down on abuses at its convenience, is not likely to provide any fundamental solution for the ’risk outsourcing‘ that happens so often in multi-level subcontracting structures,” said a ministry source.“We need to demand greater accountability from main contractors and foster a culture of mutual benefit for contracting corporations and subcontractors alike,” the source

added.By Noh Hyun-woong, staff reporter

#methanol_poisioning #occupational_safety #outsourcing