There have been newspaper reports recently about cremation facilities at a funeral parlor churning out dioxins and casting doubts over an adjacent water purification plant.
The Taipei City Government deserves a thumbs-up for facing up to worries that tap water may contain dioxins, and for carrying out scrupulous tests. A 1995 national survey by the US EPA showed a dioxin discharge volume of 2,750 gram TEQ for that year. Of this, 46 percent came from municipal waste incinerators, 18 percent from medical waste, 7.7 percent from forest fires and people burning refuse in their backyards and 1.6 percent from vehicles. Cremation sites accounted for only 0.3 percent of the dioxins, but it was an indisputable truth that cremation sites do discharge dioxins.
It is worth noting that dioxin emissions in the US were far lower than the deposition in amount. The reason, according to recent research, was underestimation of the dioxins discharged by uncontrolled fires, whose amount should be raised from 208 grams Toxic Equivalent (TEQ) to 1,000 grams TEQ -- almost the same level as dioxin coming from municipal waste incinerators.
According to recent estimates, 50 percent of Mexico's dioxin emissions comes from fires that are difficult to control. In this light, apart from the cremation facilities, the burning of weeds and ghost money as well as the daily traffic around the area may also be sources of the dioxin at the water purification plant. In response to the issue, the EPA is starting an evaluation on whether it should monitor dioxins in tap water and in the discharge of cremation sites on a regular basis.
In June, the US EPA announced regulations on reporting dioxin discharge in accordance with the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. The regulations require metal and coal mines, coal and fuel-oil power plants, hazardous waste treatment firms, wholesalers of chemicals and allied products, petroleum bulk terminals and plants, and solvent recovery services which employ more than 10 full-time employees and manufacture, possess or otherwise use more than 0.1 gram TEQ of dioxin per year must come up with dioxin discharge reports starting July next year.
Between 1997 and 1998, Taiwan's EPA conducted a survey of dioxin levels in the riverbed sediments of Taipei's Tamshui River, Hsinchu's Touchien Creek (頭前溪) and Chiayi's Putzu Creek (朴子溪). The results show that the dioxin levels of Tamshui River, whose main source of pollution is residential waste water, are three to four times higher than those of the Touchien and Putzu Rivers, whose pollution largely comes from industrial sources and animal farms. This is an indication that there may be still undiscovered sources of dioxin in Taipei -- a possibility we which should concerned us.
The sources of dioxin are myriad and complex. Dioxin is a global pollutant prevalent in people's lives. Controlling and lowering exposure to dioxin is an environmental, health and hygiene issue on which many developed countries around the world have been working together. International efforts such as improving the existing sources of dioxin, detecting potential sources, establishing all-round monitoring systems for the food chain, developing faster, cheaper and more accurate measuring technologies; and setting control regulations on the basis of scientific know-how.
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