Nearly 60 percent of health clubs in 12 randomly chosen cities and counties around the nation have failed a building safety management inspection, a spokesman for the Consumer Protection Commission said on Saturday.
A total of 61 health clubs, gyms and spas or fitness centers in 12 administrative regions were examined, the spokesman said.
The review covered building safety management, fire safety management and use of standardized contract documents, the spokesman said.
The spokesman said that 36 health clubs (or 59 percent of the total) failed the building safety management inspection, while 25 percent (or 15 health clubs) failed the fire safety examination.
Of those failing the building safety management inspection, 25 percent had illegally expanded their operational spaces, 15 percent had failed to properly install emergency exits and 23 percent had failed to apply for a regular building safety inspection with the proper government agencies.
Among those failing the fire safety inspection, 11 percent were found to have defective fire alarm equipment and 13 percent failed to meet the official requirements for emergency lighting, emergency exit signs or evacuation facilities.
Meanwhile, 15 health clubs (or 25 percent of the total) were found to have used non-standardized documents in their contracts with clients. Among the 46 health clubs that use standardized contracts, 33 failed to meet the stipulation set forth by the National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports with regard to contract narrative terms.
Officials from the commission teamed up with consumer protection staff in city and county governments as well as construction administrators, fire fighting department officials and physical education department officials when conducting the extensive safety inspection last month.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained