The Murderer that Lurked within the House of Every Korean

Introduction

Imagine yourself as a doctor in South Korea in 2009: a newlywed couple checks in with a three month old baby. Upon conducting an x-ray, you and the other doctors find yourselves dismayed, appalled at the sight upon examining - on the scan, the baby’s lungs were white: as pale and white as the very bones in your body. Two weeks before this, the family reported that the baby was coughing severely and its breath was sharp, hoarse and worsening everyday. And yet after multiple peer reviews, discussion and inspection; there was not a hint of an idea as to what could’ve caused this. The honeymoon couple now walked out alone, sobbing. Within the same week, they returned, not for the baby, but another diagnosis. This time it was the wife with issues, and once again the husband walked out alone, not knowing that the soon to be death of both his wife and baby were nothing but a couple drops in a bucket of about 14,000 deaths.

Almost three years later at a different hospital, 38 year old Ahn Seong-woo and his pregnant wife were reported to have the same respiratory problem as patient zero. The results were identical - the lady and the unborn child soon died shortly after. There was something incredibly amiss. In the span of a few years, patients came hurrying to hospitals all over South Korea showing the same symptoms that no doctor could distinguish nor diagnose. One thing was evident to many doctors and health professionals: something out there was killing them inside out.

It was only after the death of Ahn’s wife in 2011 that a clue as to what could’ve caused this mass attack was brought to light, yet by then, the damage had been utterly devastating with a newly re-estimated 13,000​-16,000 casualties (roughly ten times higher than previously thought) fell victim to this mystery assailant. By the end of the incident, it was found that there were roughly 670,000 victims including:
- 520,000 reporting new symptoms or diseases;
- 550,000 having to seek medical treatment;
- 203,000+ suffering lung diseases;
- 165,500+ suffering skin diseases;
- 139,000+ suffering severe asthma.

In the following spring of the death of Ahn’s wife, seven enceinte women who all had acute respiratory illnesses were rushed to hospitals via ambulance in a very short time frame. Out of those seven, four of them died. And a result of the ever-soaring public outcry, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) finally gave into the mounting pressure and announced the most likely culprit.

Prelude to Discovery

Following the death of the man’s wife and child in May of 2009, one of the doctors responsible for treating them gradually spiralled deep into depression and derangement - where nurses and his respective other colleagues would often avoid him. Unhinged and broken-down, he would attempt to uncover the root of the illness as it ran amok as more and more infants perished by its deathly hand. One day, he discovered that even an unborn fetus had developed this illness. These weren’t centralised cases either - they were even reported in the news - yet nobody really thought much of it and there weren't any connections being made between cases.

Then… like a tree upon a cliff, he snapped.

His colleagues, associates, professors, surgeons, family and friends alike wake up to see their inboxes flooded by mass emails - he waits patiently, agitated & spooked; awaiting any response.

Ding! And another, and then another…

Replies across the country swamped his workspace; informing him about similar cases, and of course, most of them were children and babies with young mothers coming in second.

Nearly all of the cases followed the following recipe: the couple walks into the ER with their young child/baby, then scans show lungs looking like bones. Afterwards, the couple tells the doctor “we just thought it was a common cold”, so they leave the hospital without their child/baby. Of course, this formula also applied to the pregnant mothers.

With this information and evidence from renowned and top medical practitioners all over the country, that doctor later contacted KDCA and report the following amongst others:

1. Mostly occurring in spring
2. Most likely airborne
3. Essentially turning lungs into bone
4. Bacteriologists testing all over the country states that there was nothing in the air that could’ve caused it.

However, despite precious data, statistics and first-hand information served on a silver platter (and especially one of this nature), the KDCA remained ignorant, dormant and voiceless for the next two years - until the media finally caught wind on what was happening.

All hell broke loose.

In what can only be described as pure and sheer negligence, the KDCA attempted to prevent panic and calm down the public by playing it off as a coincidence. What followed was the wrath of the nation’s mothers, intended to exacerbate the already sensitive nature surrounding the 2012 election. This marked the tipping point that propelled the KDCA to finally start interviewing families of victims, coming to the conclusion that all the families took all the correct and appropriate sanitary and health-minded precautions - with one very specific measure in common.

The Genocidal Murderer’s Identity is Revealed

That one very specific constant in this formula for disaster (that caused a plague to devastate the most vulnerable members of the population) could be revealed in one simple one-worded answer: Humidifiers. More specifically, what was in the humidifiers.

A little background is needed to understand how this seeming harmless household item would wreak such a massive trail of ruin behind it:

Humidifiers are an essential part of any South Korean household. Think 0f fans and ACs in Indonesia. The winters in South Korea are extremely arid and dry, reaching the point of necessity to preserve the air within their homes at a comfortable level. Moreover, when someone is sick during the coldest season, it's a popular belief that a humidifier would assist in recovery. As a result of this superstition, they’d leave it on for longer and move it closer to their sick family members. You can see where this is going.

“Since humidifiers are practically breeding grounds for bacteria and viruses, it must’ve been that most of the victims’ families didn’t take the correct preemptive measure of cleaning them properly.”

That was what the KDCA initially thought - yet practically everyone did sanitise and disinfect their humidifiers as instructed.

Ironically enough, what the KDCA discovered would loop straight back to the notoriously corporate government they operate under. The brand of humidifier steriliser, “Oxy Saksak” was the one brand responsible for a majority of these cases. Despite Oxy being a British corporation, this subsidiary of humidifier steriliser was exclusively sold in South Korea and had recently seen great success, growing into a major commercial chain.

There were three primary reasons as to why so many Koreans would pick this brand over others on the market.

Firstly, the brand had already cemented itself into the heart of Korea’s consumer market; and so reputation and trust was unquestionable. Secondly, it was an extremely convenient solution to cleaning humidifiers as opposed to spending all day disassembling and cleaning it manually. Thirdly, it had promised it was completely safe (Okay, okay… I know so many sketchy products would always market themselves as safe, environmentally friendly, etc. but hear me out). Not only did this immensely prevalent brand promise it was safe, but the government had endorsed and recommended them as well. Lying on every single package of this biological time bomb sold in convenience stores, supermarkets, etc. was a government seal - indicating it has passed every single government test and met all safety standards.

In other words it must’ve actually worked and been safe right? I mean why would the government not do their due diligence?

Remember the first and third reasons as they would play key roles in the aftermath of the scandal.

(Well the government’s image has drastically worsened after this scandal took place with the likes of them ignoring all of this happening; doing nothing to help save anybody onboard the MV Sewol killing 250 students and an additional 50 others despite literally being on scene; or more recently the Itaewon halloween crowd crush - but these incidents hadn’t occoured yet at this moment of time)

Gas Chambers of Death

(Truth behind the steriliser, what led up to it coming onto the market, the dark secrets of both the government and the major tycoon of Oxy along with the aftermath of the scandal will come in part two).