Taiwan Quick Take

■ Environment
Gift packaging excessive
An Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) survey yesterday showed that 14 percent of processed food gifts on the market are over-packaged. The over-packaged gifts are mostly found in supermarkets, which provided about 22 percent of all the samples surveyed. Chang Hsu-chang (張旭彰), section chief of the EPA's Waste Management Department, said that since processed food packaging will not be regulated until July this year, manufacturers of these gifts would not be penalized. The administration started regulating the packaging of pastries and alcohols last July. With the Lunar New Year holiday approaching, the administration began inspecting gifts on Jan. 27. Among the 1,003 gifts sampled, 23 percent were pastries, 26 percent alcohol and 51 percent were processed food.

■ Health
Society pushes free eye care
The Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan is calling on eye doctors to join a nationwide campaign to provide free eye care to elderly people who live alone. Society chairman Pan Chih-chin (潘志勤) quoted a study by the Department of Health saying that 38 percent of old people with eye disease are inclined to develop symptoms of depression -- about three times the rate in healthy old people. Pan said his group would invite more eye doctors to become "ambassadors" for the campaign to locate elderly people living alone who suffer from eye disease and offer them free treatment.

■ Labor
Workers invited to complain
Foreign workers are welcome to lodge petitions with the relevant labor agencies whenever they are treated improperly, a Council of Labor Affairs official said yesterday. Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良), a division chief at the Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training, was responding to reports in the Philippine media that Filipina housemaids and caregivers have complained about their Taiwanese employers' reluctance to offer them days off. In the past, Tsai said, employers would fire foreign workers, but the situation has improved since last October when a new set of protective measures for foreign laborers went into force. Under the new system, local officials are required to verify every case involving the firing, advanced termination of contract and repatriation of foreign laborers and should assist in handling disputes between local employers and foreign employees.

■ Society
Dog rapist tracked down
Police used a DNA test to help a dog owner determine whether his female dog was "molested" and impregnated by another dog at a pet hotel, the Broadcasting Corp of China (BCC) reported yesterday. According to the report, the owner left his dog at a pet hotel while he went overseas last year. After he came back he discovered the dog was pregnant. The dog later gave birth to several pups. The dog owner said he believed his dog had been "molested" by another dog at the facility. Determined to find out how his dog was impregnated, the owner sought help from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation -- which conducts DNA tests to catch human criminals -- to help him find out who the father of the puppies was, BCC said. The results showed that the dog had been impregnated by another dog while at the hotel. The pet hotel owner apologized to the owner and they reached an out-of-court settlement.