Kim Sungkyoon, Paek Domyung
Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
Environ Health Toxicol. 2016 Dec 4;31:e2016025. doi: 10.5620/eht.e2016025. eCollection 2016.
After the initial investigations by the Korea Centers for Disease Control in 2011, over 1000 suspicious cases of humidifier disinfectant (HD) victims were subsequently reported by 2015, and numbers are still increasing dramatically in 2016 in the midst of the prosecutors' office investigation. This study attempts to summarize the current understandings of the related health effects of HD based upon a systemic review of published epidemiologic studies and toxicology investigations.
Published studies of HDs were searched through PubMed and TOXLINE under the search words 'humidifier disinfectant,' and related reports were identified from the references and published report list of regulatory agencies including the Korean National Institute of Environmental Research, US Environmental Protection Agency, and EU European Chemicals Agency.
Case reports and epidemiologic studies have reported the clinical features of severe forms of HD lung damage, together with epidemiologic findings of seasonal occurrence and demographic variations, including the heightened susceptibility of young children. Toxicological studies have reported inhalation toxicities together with positive findings of genotoxicity studies.
This study examined unsolved issues based on cases of upper respiratory diseases and diseases of other organs, including cancers, among suspected victims of HDs. These issues should be clarified in future research for the management and prevention of health effects from HDs and chemicals of other related household products.
2011年韩国疾病控制中心进行初步调查后，截至2015年，又报告了1000多例加湿器消毒剂（HD）受害者疑似病例，在检察官办公室调查期间，2016年病例数仍在急剧增加。本研究旨在通过对已发表的流行病学研究和毒理学调查进行系统回顾，总结目前对HD相关健康影响的认识。
通过PubMed和TOXLINE以“加湿器消毒剂”为检索词搜索已发表的HD研究，并从包括韩国国家环境研究所、美国环境保护局和欧盟欧洲化学品管理局在内的监管机构的参考文献和已发表报告列表中识别相关报告。
病例报告和流行病学研究报告了严重形式的HD肺损伤的临床特征，以及季节性发病和人口统计学差异的流行病学结果，包括幼儿易感性增加。毒理学研究报告了吸入毒性以及遗传毒性研究的阳性结果。
本研究基于HD疑似受害者的上呼吸道疾病和其他器官疾病（包括癌症）病例，审视了未解决的问题。这些问题应在未来的研究中加以澄清，以管理和预防HD及其他相关家用产品化学品对健康的影响。
