Mosquito coil manufacturers will face fines of up to NT$300,000 if their products contain more than 20 picograms of international toxic equivalent per gram (pg I-TEQ/g) of dioxin, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday.
The new regulation came after the EPA found on July 25 that two types of Crocodile Coil brand mosquito coils contained dioxin concentrations 100 times above the industrial standard.
A secondary investigation on Aug. 5 found that all seven of the brand’s Vietnam-made products contained dioxin levels ranging from 163 pg I-TEQ/g to 624 pg I-TEQ/g. Meanwhile, one product passed the dioxin level test and contained less than 1 pg I-TEQ/g of the carcinogen.
Dioxin is listed by the WHO as a known carcinogen. If exposed to these burning coils in closed rooms for two or three months, a person’s risk of developing cancer could increase 3.7-fold, director-general of the Department of Environmental Sanitation and Toxic Substances Yuan Shao-ying (袁紹英) said.
“We promised to establish a safety level for dioxin concentrations in mosquito coils within a month on July 25 to protect public health,” Yuan said.
“We decided after an expert panel meeting that in the future, manufacturers with products that contain more than 20 pg I-TEQ/g of the toxin will face fines or be ordered to close down their factories,” he said.
Aside from inducing lung and liver cancer, excessive exposure to dioxins can cause low sperm count, liver dysfunction, miscarriages and birth defects, the chief of Chang Gung Medical Foundation Linkou Branch’s department of toxicology, Lin Jie-liang (林杰樑), said.
To prevent excessive inhalation of toxic gas emitted by mosquito coils — which include dioxins and octachlorodipropyl ether — Lin said people should leave the room when the coils are burning and fully ventilate the rooms before they go back in.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS