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1 "Seung-sik Hwang"
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Brief Communication
Evaluation report on the causal association between humidifier disinfectants and lung injury
Mina Ha, Soon Young Lee, Seung-sik Hwang, Hyesook Park, Seungsoo Sheen, Hae Kwan Cheong, Bo Youl Choi
Epidemiol Health. 2016;38:e2016037.   Published online August 18, 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4178/epih.e2016037
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AbstractAbstract AbstractSummary PDFSupplementary Material
Abstract
OBJECTIVES
As of November 2011, the Korean government recalled and banned humidifier disinfectants (HDs) from the market, because four case-control studies and one retrospective epidemiological study proved the association between HDs and lung injury of unknown cause. The report reviewed the causal role of HDs in lung injury based on scientific evidences.
METHODS
A careful examination on the association between the HDs and lung injury was based on the criteria of causality inference by Hill and the US Surgeon General Expert Committee.
RESULTS
We found that all the evidences on the causality fulfilled the criteria (strength of association, consistency, specificity, temporality, biologic gradient, plausibility, coherence, experiment, analogy, consideration of alternative explanations, and cessation of exposure), which proved the unknown cause lung injury reported in 2011 was caused by the HDs. In particular, there was no single reported case of lung injury since the ban in selling HDs in November 2011 as well as before the HDs were sold in markets.
CONCLUSIONS
Although only a few epidemiological studies in Korea have evaluated the association between lung injury and the use of HDs, those studies contributed to proving the strong association between the use of the HDs and lung injury, based on scientific evidence.
Summary
Korean summary
본 논문에서는 Hill의 기준과 US Surgeon General 전문위원회에서 제시하는 기준에 근거하여 가습기살균제와 폐손상과의 인과성을 검토하였다. 검토결과, 11개 조건(관련성의 강도, 일관성, 특이성, 시간적 선후관계, 생물학적 용량-반응 관계, 개연성, 기존 지식과의 일치성, 실험, 유사성, 다른 가능한 해석에 대한 고려 및 노출의 중단) 을 모두 충족함을 확인하므로 써, 2011년 발생한 원인미상 폐손상의 원인이 가습기살균제 노출로 인한 것임을 알 수 있었다. 무엇보다도 가습기살균제 시판 전에는 원인미상 폐손상이 보고된 바가 없었고, 2011년 11월 가습기살균제 판매중지 이후 폐손상이 한 건도 발생하지 않은 것은 원인미상의 폐손상이 가습기살균제로 인한 것임을 강력하게 지지하는 것으로 판단된다.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by  
  • New-Onset and Exacerbation of Lung Diseases after Short-Term Exposures to Humidifier Disinfectant during Hospitalization
    Seula Lee, Kyunghee Han, Jeonggyo Yoon, Eun-Kyung Jo, Wonho Yang, Yoon-Hyeong Choi
    Toxics.2022; 10(7): 371.     CrossRef
  • Characterizing Subjects Exposed to Humidifier Disinfectants Using Computed-Tomography-Based Latent Traits: A Deep Learning Approach
    Frank Li, Jiwoong Choi, Xuan Zhang, Prathish K. Rajaraman, Chang-Hyun Lee, Hongseok Ko, Kum-Ju Chae, Eun-Kee Park, Alejandro P. Comellas, Eric A. Hoffman, Ching-Long Lin
    International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.2022; 19(19): 11894.     CrossRef
  • Physical analysis reveals distinct responses of human bronchial epithelial cells to guanidine and isothiazolinone biocides
    Tae Yoon Kwon, Jaeseong Jeong, Eunyoung Park, Youngbin Cho, Dongyoung Lim, Ung Hyun Ko, Jennifer H. Shin, Jinhee Choi
    Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology.2021; 424: 115589.     CrossRef
  • 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
  • Strength of Association. Report 1. Graduations of Relative Risk
    А. Котеров, A. Koterov, Л. Ушенкова, L. Ushenkova, Э. Зубенкова, E. Zubenkova, А. Вайнсон, A. Vaynson, М. Калинина, M. Kalinina, А. Бирюков, A. Biryukov
    Medical Radiology and radiation safety.2019; : 5.     CrossRef
  • Causal inference in environmental epidemiology
    Sanghyuk Bae, Hwan-Cheol Kim, Byeongjin Ye, Won-Jun Choi, Young-Seoub Hong, Mina Ha
    Environmental Health and Toxicology.2017; 32: e2017015.     CrossRef

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