Approximately 500 people protested outside Ta-fa Industrial Park in Kaohsiung County’s Taliao Township (大寮) yesterday, demanding the government find the source of noxious gas that has leaked into nearby elementary and middle schools three times in the past month.
Among the protesters were the parents of pupils attending Chao-liao elementary and middle schools, local residents and students from the schools.
“If an answer [for dealing with the gas] is found we will go back to school, if not we will continue to stay away in case we get poisoned again,” one student said.
PHOTO: HUNG CHEN-HUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
School officials said that attendance rates have dropped below 50 percent.
Three gas leaks caused dozens of school children and teachers to be hospitalized on Dec. 1, Dec. 12 and most recently on Thursday.
The affected individuals reported nausea, dizziness and tension in the chest.
Yesterday morning protesters demanded that a waste water treatment plant in the park be shut down, saying that the plant was the source of the gas.
The demonstration in the morning was tense. Because the protesters had gathered without applying for permission, the police demanded they disperse in accordance with the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法).
This drew a heated response from the protesters, who then clashed with police. Some protesters threw rocks at both the plant and the police. One protestor was detained.
“Must someone die before the factories cease operation?” said Taliao Township chief Huang Tian-huang (黃天煌).
The situation calmed when Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) arrived at the site at around 11am.
“The gas came from a factory,” Yang said, adding that the waste water treatment plant was merely a downstream destination of the foul gas.
In the past, the county would ask factory owners to turn themselves in, Yang said. He said that in this case, however, as no factory had admitted fault, the culprit would have to be found by Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) investigaters.
The situation turned tense again in the afternoon when EPA Minister Steven Shen (沈世宏) arrived at the site.
Shen and Yang at one point argued when Shen said that the industrial park should be shut down for investigation.
“How can you say this kind of thing?” Yang asked, saying that Shen should apologize.
The two sat down to discuss the situation later after Shen retracted his statement.
Yang said that three chemical factories were suspected sources of the noxious gas, including one owned by the Chang-chun Group and Polyplastics’ Ta-fa Plant.
The results of the investigation would be released soon, EPA Deputy Minister Chang Tzi-chin (張子敬) said.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS