Consider these numbers: 1,300, 221, 25, 20, 14 and 30.
It has been more than a quarter of a century since a factory founded by Radio Corp of America (RCA) in what was then Taoyuan County was shuttered, 20 years since the Environmental Protection Administration determined that the plant site was so contaminated with illegally buried toxic chemicals that it declared the site permanently polluted, and 14 years since a group of former employees and family members filed a lawsuit against the company and three other firms seeking compensation for exposure to hazardous chemicals they said led to the illnesses of at least 1,300 workers and the deaths of 221.
Members of the RCA Self-Help Association on Thursday were finally able to claim a partial victory after the Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s ruling in October last year that found in their favor.
Partial victory, because while the Supreme Court found that the illnesses and deaths could be linked to their exposure to the chemicals used in the manufacturing process and the water that had been contaminated by the buried toxic waste, it lowered the damages by more than NT$150 million (US$4.87 million) from the High Court’s decision — which was still just a fraction of what the plaintiffs were seeking — and because it sent a case by another group of former employees back to the High Court.
Partial victory as well in that the size of the award pales in comparison with the wealth of the companies involved, and so can be considered yet another slap on the wrist for a major polluter.
However, in terms of environmental protection law, it was a huge victory, considering what polluters have gotten away with for decades, and considering the not-so-veiled threat from US manufacturing and industrial trade associations that a finding against the four corporations could hinder international investment in Taiwan.
While the government has made substantial progress over the past few decades in enacting tougher environmental protection laws, regulatory administration and enforcement have not kept pace, and several seemingly strong cases have been lost.
These include the Kaohsiung branch of the High Court on Sept. 29, 2015, acquitting five Advanced Semiconductor Engineering employees in connection with discharges of highly acidic wastewater containing nickel into the Houjing River (後勁溪) because the water was not considered to be hazardous waste.
The Supreme Court’s verdict is a rare example of a Taiwanese court accepting epidemiological and toxicological evidence about the health effects of exposure to chemicals used at a plant, rather than requiring direct evidence of cause and effect, and of judges deciding that the statute of limitations did not apply, given the efforts by the companies since 1994 to withhold information about the chemicals used at the plant.
It is also notable because the judges said the companies had to disprove the link to the illnesses, which the court determined they had not, instead of forcing the plaintiffs to bear the burden of proof.
Then there is the number 30.
As the judges noted, medical experts had testified that the incidence of cancer among the former employees of the Taoyuan plant was up to 30 times higher than in the general population.
For the families of the 221 former employees who have died so far — and for those workers whose cancers and illnesses are robbing them of the lives they could have expected to live — Thursday’s court decision will always be too little, too late.
While the Supreme Court’s decision should be hailed for what it has achieved, it should also serve as a reminder of how much more needs to be done to protect the workers and residents of this nation and the land itself from those who put profit over life.
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