Hsinchu Science Park officials announced last week that the NT$185.9 billion in sales last year of products from the park represented a growth of 27 percent year-on-year. However, the operation of a newly-completed sludge treatment facility at the park's water treatment plant is the object of protest by nearby residents and environmentalists.
Driving from Taipei down to Hsinchu City via Chung Shan National Highway, drivers can easily see two eye-catching signs roughly 10m high, posted on walls of Lungshan Primary School. Parents opposed to the facility have made both Chinese and English, saying the sludge incinerator is jeopardizing their children's health.
The sludge incinerator, designed to treat up to 95 tonnes of industrial sludge daily, is in close proximity to residences and schools. Since its was lunched last August, park administrators have been punished by Hsinchu City Government for exceeding acceptable levels of arsenic and dioxin emissions.
"We don't care what kind of advanced technology is used. The location of the incinerator was a huge mistake," Chung Shu-chi (鍾淑姬), an environmentalist at the Hsinchu Foundation, told the Taipei Times.
Chung said that since last August, when the operation of the sludge incinerator was launched, the health of daily visitors, employees, students at nearby schools and residents of eastern Hsinchu -- roughly 150,000 people -- had been aversely affected.
Chung said that Lungshan Primary School, a mere 580m from the incinerator, is just one of affected schools. Within a 2km radius of the incinerator, there are eight schools of varying levels, including two major universities. National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) is only about 800m away from the facility.
Environmentalists, local residents and NCTU professors have organized demonstrations against the park several times. At meetings with the park's administration, they accused the park of using waste solvents collected from firms in the park as auxiliary fuel for the incinerator.
"Solvents collected from high-tech companies in the park contain certain acid and alkaline chemicals," said Tsai Chuen-Jinn (
According to the US National Institute of Health, studies have shown that dioxin exposure at high levels leads to an increased risk of cancer.
Other studies have shown that dioxin exposure can lead to reproductive and developmental problems. Dioxin's potential to cause birth defects has not been established in humans, but studies in mice show that it can produce congenital defects.
The industrial park's director-general, James Lee (
"Professional analysis suggests that waste solvents have better performance then diesel oil as a fuel in combustion," Lee said.
According to Lee, the park generates 60 tonnes of waste solvents daily. The incinerator might accommodate one third of the daily amount. Lee said that a chemical analysis would be carried out in order to refine the solvents used as fuel.
The park's administration also stressed that treating non-hazardous industrial waste inside the park as much as possible amounts to environmental protection.
"The incinerator dries sludge, reducing it to 20 percent of its original volume. The incinerator also can consume quantities of waste solvents," Lee said.
In July 2000, illegal waste handlers dumped industrial solvents, including the toxic xylene, into the Chishan River (旗山溪), one of the main sources of water for the Kaohsiung metropolitan area, leaving millions of residents without tap water for days. In 2001, the Environmental Protection Administration suggested that science parks should come up with strategies for handling industrial waste. Hsinchu Science Park began construction of the sludge incinerator in December 2001. Currently, most companies send their waste solvents to incinerators in eastern Taiwan.
The park's administration said that the operation had been improved and sound supervision would ensure the safety.
Chan Jen-chieh (
"We burn it at temperatures higher than 850?C in order to not generate dioxins," he said.
Environmentalists, however, suspect that the incinerator was mainly built to accommodate waste chemical solvents.
Local environmentalists have initiated a petition demanding the park shut down the incinerator.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods