Some of the cooking fuels commonly used for camping were found to be hazardous chemicals containing methanol above the standard level, which can cause headaches and dizziness.
The Korea Consumer Agency (KCA) said on the 12th that tests and evaluations of the quality and safety of 13 cooking fuel products found that 5 of 8 solid ethanol products contained methanol exceeding the standard (10%).
Methanol can cause headaches, dizziness, and vomiting when inhaled, and it is converted in the body to formaldehyde and formic acid, which can damage the optic nerve. Under the Chemical Substances Control Act, substances containing 10% or more methanol are classified as hazardous chemicals that can have harmful effects on health even with short-term exposure.
The products in question are CK Korea Co., Ltd.'s "Solid Fuel" (methanol content 56.7%), KOP304's "Bulmandae Ethanol Mini Solid Fuel" (30%), Dongyang International's "Acacia Ethanol Solid Fuel" (28%), COCOWILL's "Coco Ethanol Ethanol Solid Fuel" (25.1%), and EJ C&C's "Domestic Production Camping Fire Starter Brazier Ethanol Solid Fuel" (24.2%). Of these, all companies except KOP304, which did not reply with an improvement plan, said they would comply with the improvement recommendation by halting sales of existing products and implementing exchange and refund measures.
In the case of YS Company's "Newvia Ethanol Solid Fuel," its methanol content was 7.1%, which did not qualify as a hazardous chemical, but it was higher than Raon L&C's "Raon Ethanol Solid Fuel" (0.1%) and Samsung Chemical's "Firefox Multipurpose Ethanol Solid Fuel" (0.02%), so it received an improvement recommendation from the consumer agency.
In addition to solid fuel, the consumer agency also checked the safety of five molded charcoal products, finding that Hosan Charcoal's "Hosan Hwalhwalta Molded Charcoal" contained arsenic exceeding nine times the standard amount (1.0 mg/kg), rendering it noncompliant. In addition, Cyan Charcoal's "Coconut Fire Starter" and Carbontech's "Aurora" were found to have omitted, respectively, the moisture content and the manufacturing year and month markings.