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.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
RSS