Workers were overcome with toxic gas from a paper mill’s waste pool and seven of them died, Chinese officials said yesterday, in the latest deadly accident involving dangerous chemicals to hit China.
A worker who was cleaning a pool filled with pulp paper waste fell in and his coworkers rushed to help, but were overcome with the noxious gas themselves, a statement from the Anxiang County Government in Hunan Province said. Seven workers died and two were injured.
The statement on Friday’s accident did not say what type of toxic gas was involved.
Separately, firefighters and environmental response crews were rushing to clean up about 15 tonnes of sulfuric acid spilled early yesterday from a crashed tanker truck in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
The driver and a passenger in the truck were killed when it veered off the road into farmland near the resort city of Hangzhou and about 10km from major waterways.
The pair of incidents follows China’s worst industrial accident in recent years, a massive explosion at a warehouse storing toxic chemicals in the port city of Tianjin that killed at least 147 people.
Investigators are looking into how the Tianjin warehouse gained permission to handle sodium cyanide and other dangerous chemicals, despite being inside a legally mandated 1,000m buffer zone from homes and roads.
The investigation has also found that the warehouse was storing vastly more chemicals than it was equipped to handle and had kept some in a loading zone rather than storing them securely.
Another worker was killed and nine injured in an explosion at a chemical plant in the eastern city of Zibo on Aug. 22.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)