The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) and police on the 31st were conducting a search and seizure of a zinc manufacturing plant in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang, where a suffocation accident left three workers dead and one injured. It came six days after the accident.
The Pohang District Office of Employment and Labor and the North Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency said that in the morning they deployed about 40 labor inspectors and police officers to secure officials' PCs, cellphones, and other items. They also plan to check whether the employer's safety and health rules to prevent suffocation accidents were properly implemented.
The ministry said, "We take seriously the gravity of this incident, which resulted in multiple casualties," and added, "Based on the evidence secured through this search and seizure, we will clearly determine the cause of the inflow of hazardous gas and where responsibility lies, and strictly investigate whether there were violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act."
Earlier, on the 25th, at a zinc manufacturing plant in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang, four employees of a subcontractor who were doing piping work inside a water tank were poisoned by hazardous gas. The workers were employees of a piping company based in Gyeonggi. When one worker who had been resting outside the tank was nowhere to be seen, the remaining workers went down into the tank, and about 10 minutes later, the foreman reportedly found all four collapsed at the bottom of the tank.
An analysis using hazardous gas measuring equipment detected carbon monoxide inside the underground tank where the accident occurred. Carbon monoxide is colorless, tasteless, and odorless, making it hard to detect quickly even at high concentrations.
Two days after the accident, Minister Kim Young-hoon of the ministry held an emergency briefing and said, "So far we have used compulsory investigations mainly for major accidents," and noted, "From now on, when basic safety rules are not observed or the same type of accident occurs repeatedly, we will actively use compulsory investigations such as search and seizure and detention."
Meanwhile, the ministry is pushing to revise safety and health rules to require employers to provide oxygen and hazardous gas meters to prevent suffocation accidents in confined spaces. The advance notice of legislation has been completed, and it is to be promulgated after going through related procedures.