Environmentalists yesterday urged the Taiwan Stock Exchange to suspend trading in shares of Eternal Chemical Company (
The operation was shut down last month after the company was found to be involved in the pollution of the Kaoping River.
"Eternal should have provided shareholders this essential information [about the terminated operations] to avoid being accused in the future of concealing information from shareholders," said Hsiao Yu-pei (
The environmental group has launched attacks on other chemical companies, such as Formosa Plastics, by publicly raising doubt about the firms' stocks as a means to spread awareness of the company's failure to manage waste.
Hsiao said that the stock exchange should have asked Eternal to inform shareholders that the company had been under investigation in the Kaoping River pollution case and that its operations had been halted.
"Shareholders have the right to know that possible financial losses may be sustained from a resulting lawsuit," Hsiao said.
Environmentalists said that shareholders should have been informed that Eternal is applying for the permit for the resumption of one of its plants, located in Luchu (
Prosecutors had demanded the plant be shut down last month after the company sold toxic chemical solvents, including xylene (二甲苯), to Shengli Waste Handler (昇利公司), which hired truck drivers to dump the waste secretly in the Kaoping River, causing serious water pollution.
The pollution left three million residents in the Kaohsiung area without water.
According to the Waste Disposal Act (
"Eternal should let shareholders know how much the cost of the treatment may be," Hsiao said.
When meeting with environmentalists yesterday, Chen Ming-tai (
"We've kept our eyes on Eternal since the pollution case was exposed last month and asked the company to update its information at the exchange's information center on the Internet," Chen said.
Environmentalists said shareholders should be aware of Eternal's plans to resume operations at the Luchu plant. Stockholders need to be certain Eternal will find a suitable waste handler and not pollute further, they said.
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