A decision by the Department of Health to relax standards for a pesticide residue on apples has angered consumer activists who believe the move may have been the result of pressure from the US.
The government had previously banned the presence of any residues of the pesticide endosulfan on any apples sold in the country, but announced on March 29 that endosulfan residues of up to 0.5ppm would now be acceptable.
“All apples, whether imported or locally grown, will be subject to the new endosulfan inspection level,” said Hsieh Ting-hung (謝定宏), deputy director of the Bureau of Food Safety.
Hsieh said the new norm was set after consulting joint standards established by the WHO and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, as well as US and EU standards, as part of an effort to review standards for residues of various pesticides on different agricultural products.
The new endosulfan standard for apples, which will take effect three days after being officially promulgated, has sparked criticism from consumer advocates.
Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群), an associate professor at National Taiwan University’s College of Bio-Resources and Agriculture and a member of the nonprofit Consumers’ Foundation, cited the foundation and local farmers’ associations as saying the US had exerted political pressure on Taiwan to force it to lower food safety standards.
The US is one of the main sources of apples sold in Taiwan, along with Japan, New Zealand and Chile.
Sun said two shipments of US apples were rejected earlier this year by authorities because they were found to have endosulfan residues ranging from 0.02ppm to 0.04ppm.
Information from the Consumer Protection Commission shows that two US apple shipments were rejected in February and six more in March, mostly because they were found to contain endosulfan residue.
Gaston Wu (吳家誠), a professor at National Taiwan Normal University and secretary-general of the Consumers’ Foundation, said many local fruit growers have filed complaints with the foundation over the government’s decision to lower the standard for the pesticide in apples.
Lin Ja-liang (林杰樑), a clinical toxicology specialist with Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou, said endosulfan is a highly toxic pesticide that affects the central nervous system.
“It should not be allowed to be present in any apple because a large intake of it can lead to liver damage, the weakening of the immune system, and even miscarriages,” Lin said.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
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,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift