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City endangering public health: Taipei councilor

The Taipei City Government is putting local residents' health at risk by spraying roadside trees with agricultural chemicals banned by the Council of Agriculture, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilor said yesterday.

Chemicals used by the city's Parks and Street Lights Office include Carbofuran and Methidathion, which are categorized as toxic and banned by the council.

“While workers wear toxic-proof garments and masks to spray the chemicals on trees, they do not warn passers-by and residents in the area,” DPP Taipei City Councilor Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said at a question-and-answer session at Taipei City Council.

Showing video clips of workers on a truck spraying chemicals on the streets at midnight, Chuang said passers-by and scooter drivers could easily overlook the matter, thinking the workers were simply spraying water.

“This is a serious matter regarding public health. For people who pass in the streets or nearby residents who open their windows at night, it's like taking a toxic shower,” he said.

There are more than 87,000 trees in Taipei City, and the parks office sprays the chemicals about once every two weeks.

Chuang lashed out at Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) for ignoring public health and demanded that the city government stop using the toxic chemicals immediately.

“As a public health expert and former minister of environmental protection, you should be ashamed for using banned chemicals and failing to protect local residents' health,” he told Hau.

Hau said he had no knowledge of the parks office using banned chemicals, but promised to look into the matter and prevent the use of the banned chemicals.

Park and Streets Lights Office director Chen Chia-ching (陳嘉欽) apologized for the negligence, and said the office would immediately stop using the chemicals.

Chen said the office would also exert more effort to inform local borough chiefs one month before chemical spraying and ask them to inform residents days before the spraying.
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