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.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure