A limit on the emission of air pollutants in the Kaohsiung metropolitan area, which has the worst air quality in Taiwan, will be set in 2003, the Environmental Protection Administration announced yesterday.
The region encompassing Kaoshiung City, Kaohsiung County and Pingtung County has been an industrial area for decades and home to factories making steel, chemical petroleum products and cement.
EPA officials said that air quality in Taiwan has improved since 1996. In 2000, only 4.05 percent of days recorded were "unhealthy," which means that air quality monitoring stations recorded pollution standards index values above 100. The Kaohsiung metropolitan area was, however, responsible for 10.72 percent of these `unhealthy' days.
The index is calculated on a daily basis for many major metropolitan areas. It converts measured pollutant concentrations in a community's air to a number on a scale from zero to 500. In Taiwan, the most significant outdoor air pollutants are ozone and PM10 (particles bigger than 10 micrograms). According to the EPA, a level in excess of 100 means that the air is in the unhealthy range.
EPA officials said at a press conference yesterday that a project to improve the air quality in Kaohsiung metropolitan area has already been mapped out. The goal is to reduce the total of "bad air" days in the area to 6 percent by 2006.
"The EPA will conduct emission inspections and establish a system for trading emission quotas after discussing it with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the three local governments in the area," said Fang Shu-hwei (方淑慧), an official from the EPA Bureau of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control (空保處).
Before setting the emission limit in 2003, Fang said, the EPA would encourage local governments to control the emission of outdoor air pollutants from factories.
"In addition, we will help farmers have their agricultural waste burned in waste incinerators rather than outdoors," Fang said.
Asked if the EPA would adopt a stricter system to measure air quality, similar to the higher standards used in some developed countries, Fang said that the administration's Environmental Moni-toring and Data Processing Bureau had considered adopting tougher measures.
Fang said that they are aware that the main factor which determines how deeply particle matter penetrates the lungs is the size of the particle.
The nasal passages filter particles bigger than 10 micrograms. Scientific evidence has demonstrated that children often breathe through their mouths and bypass this filtering method. In the US, there is increasing evidence that points to very fine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrograms as being a significant health concern.
Since July 1999, the US EPA has replaced the PSI scale with its new Air Quality Index in order to incorporate new Federal ozone and 2.5 microgram standards. The index is designed to provide accurate, timely and easily understandable information about daily levels of air pollution.
Taiwan currently only has 5 mo-nitoring stations capable of detecting 2.5 microgram-sized particles.
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
BULLY TACTICS: Beijing has continued its incursions into Taiwan’s airspace even as Xi Jinping talked about Taiwan being part of the Chinese family and nation China should stop its coercion of Taiwan and respect mainstream public opinion in Taiwan about sovereignty if its expression of goodwill is genuine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. Ministry spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) made the comment in response to media queries about a meeting between former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) the previous day. Ma voiced support for the so-called “1992 consensus,” while Xi said that although the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have “different systems,” this does not change the fact that they are “part of the same country,” and that “external
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source