00:00Factory workers were getting injections on a regular schedule, they say they were told the shots were vitamins.
00:07But allegations have surfaced that the shots were a drug that flushes built up lead out of the body through
00:12urine.
00:14The injection dates had one thing in common, everyone came right before a health checkup.
00:20This happened at a car battery plant run by South Korea's Dien Automotive in the industrial city of Olsan.
00:27That one pattern wiped more than 17% off the company's stock in a single day.
00:32The company makes lead-acid car batteries.
00:35As the name says, lead is the key material.
00:38Melting and joining it throws off dust and fumes.
00:41That makes these plants among the most tightly regulated workplaces under Korean law.
00:47Once lead gets into the body, it doesn't leave easily.
00:50It travels through the blood, then settles in the bones, where it can stay for years.
00:54It damages the nerves and kidneys.
00:56So workers' blood is drawn regularly to check lead levels.
00:59This is the special health examination.
01:02If the level is over the limit, the worker must be reassigned or treated.
01:07It's the last safety net protecting workers.
01:09At the heart of the allegations, someone tampered with that net itself.
01:14The shots allegedly given right before the exams were chelation therapy.
01:18It's a treatment that pulls heavy metals out of the body.
01:21The allegation is that a shot just before testing can temporarily push the blood reading down.
01:26Think of it as sucking on an ice cube right before someone takes your temperature.
01:29The number reads normal.
01:31The body hasn't changed.
01:33Workers say they didn't know what the shots were.
01:35The company initially said it never deceived anyone and that workers chose the treatment
01:39themselves on a doctor's prescription.
01:41The truth is for investigators to determine.
01:44But some facts are already confirmed.
01:47An inspection by South Korea's Ministry of Employment and Labor found lead above the legal limit
01:52on some production lines.
01:53President Lee Jae-myung said lead at more than five times the limit had been detected.
01:57It all started with an insider tip in late January.
02:01The ministry inspected the plant in March and April and uncovered 88 violations.
02:0568 were referred for criminal prosecution.
02:08The other 20 drew fines of 46.2 million won, about $35,000.
02:13Processes where lead exceeded the limit were halted for 17 days.
02:17Another party was penalized too, the agency that tested the plant's air.
02:21Its measurements were found to be faulty and it was suspended for three months.
02:24The watchdog and the watched were sanctioned side by side.
02:27Then the legal picture turned absurd.
02:29Korean law had no provision to punish this practice.
02:33In the U.S., OSHA rules flatly bar employers from giving workers chelation as a preventative
02:38measure.
02:39So the ministry reached for another charge, obstruction of business.
02:42Its view is that the company interfered with government measures to protect workers' health.
02:46The Olsan Metropolitan Police Agency is now investigating.
02:50One question still has no answer.
02:52What condition are the people who received those shots in today?
02:55A low reading doesn't mean the lead stored in their bones is gone.
02:59That's why an epidemiological study of every current and former workers is getting underway.
03:04It even covers people who have already left the company.
03:07Tracking down people who quit years ago means one thing.
03:10No one knows how far the harm reaches.
03:12The ministry is also inspecting 14 other battery plants at the same time.
03:16The confirmed costs are actually small.
03:18$35,000 in fines and a 17-day line stoppage won't shake the earnings of a company this
03:23size.
03:23The problem is a cost no one can put a number on yet.
03:26Compensation, which will depend on what the epidemiological study finds.
03:29Then, on the afternoon the shares tumbled, the company changed its tone.
03:34CEO Kim In-On issued a statement and formally apologized.
03:37He apologized for causing deep concern over working conditions and health management, and
03:42expressed remorse for failing to uphold the principle that employee safety and health
03:45come first.
03:46But he offered no specific explanation of the injection allegations themselves.
03:50Instead, he pledged full cooperation with every process—government investigations, health
03:54checkups, and the epidemiological study.
03:56If the findings show the company is at fault, he said, it will take full responsibility without
04:00evasion.
04:02In other words, no admission, no denial, just waiting for the results.
04:06Safety readings are a mirror held up to the workplace.
04:09Swap the mirror instead of cleaning it, and everything looks clean for now, but what it
04:12reflected doesn't disappear.
04:13What remains behind a swapped mirror is only now starting to come to light.
