Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) yesterday said the government should convene a committee to look into the controversy about the likely relocation of Ciaotou Elementary School’s (橋頭國小) Syucuo (許厝) branch, as the company has doubts over the research results by the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) against FPG’s manufacturing unit in Yunlin County.
FPG’s call came after the Executive Yuan on Monday said that students at the school, which is 900m from FPG’s naphtha cracker in Yunlin’s Mailiao Township (麥寮), are to be transfered to Fongrong Elementary School in Lunbei Township (崙背), to avoid exposure to pollutants from the cracker.
The Cabinet’s decision was based on a study by the NHRI, which said urine tests conducted on students at Ciaotou Elementary School showed higher levels of thiodiglycolic acid (TdGA) — an indicator of exposure to vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) — than students in other schools.
Given that FPG’s naphtha cracker produces VCM, the main material used for polyvinyl chloride products, the company was blamed for the high TdGA levels.
“We impose strict controls on the plant’s emissions and the monitoring figures are all under pollution control standards,” Formosa Plastics chairman and president Jason Lin (林健男) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
The group has doubts about the figures and indicators used in the study by NHRI, Lin said, adding that the government should form a committee to clarify the concerns and publish the research results for further examination.
The company said the NHRI’s research results do not prove that the students’ TdGA levels were caused by VCM, as there are multiple pollutants that might lead to higher levels of TdGA.
TdGA can come from a variety of sources, including second-hand smoke, vehicle emissions and vitamin B complex, but the research excluded these factors, FPG said.
It carries out yearly examinations of the workers at the plant to monitor their health, the firm said.
The highest level of VCM that FPG has found in its employees at the plant was 58 parts per billion (ppb), much lower than the government’s standard of 3,000ppb, the company said in a statement.
People who are not at the plant would be exposed less than the workers, Lin said.
Lin said that as there are no international standards for testing VCM levels, the group hopes that the government resolves the controversy.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction,” police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” After no one showed up, the passenger pushed
RSS