The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday said it is conducting ground pollutant and chemical analysis at seven places in Kaohsiung County where it suspects the soil has been contaminated with steel furnace slag and foundry ash.
The EPA said it would announce the results of its analysis on Nov. 23.
The seven locations include four empty lots, a pineapple orchard, a duck farm and a parcel of land immediately beside it.
The tests were ordered after 9,000 dioxin-contaminated ducks at a duck farm in the county were slaughtered a day earlier because the farm, situated on a landfill, was found to be tainted with dioxins from dumped steel-mill slag.
Local officials led by the county’s Daliao Township (大寮) chief Huang Tian-huang (黃天煌) said after investigating yesterday that the duck farm in question was on land rented two years ago from Uni-President Enterprises.
The company said it was not aware of ground pollutant and dioxin problems in the area.
Company officials said the firm had agreed to rent the land to the owner, surnamed Tsai (蔡), after he consented to not conduct illegal activities on it.
Tsai was allegedly operating the duck farm without a license.
The EPA had confirmed earlier that the ducks contained levels of copper, nickel, chromium, zinc, arsenic and lead two to 10 times higher than the safety limit.
They were also found to contain up to five times the recommended maximum level of dioxins.
WHO regulations state that exposure to dioxins could lead to liver problems in the short-term as well as the impairment of immune, neurological and reproductive systems in humans in the long-term, and that dioxins can remain in the human body for a long time because of their chemical stability.
Meanwhile, a Department of Health (DOH) official said the health authorities in Kaohsiung County would test duck meat, eggs and related products from around the country, as well as aquaculture products from areas where soil pollution caused by slag dumped by a steel mill was recently found.
The measures are being taken to minimize the damage to public health caused by serious soil contamination, the official said.
DOH food sanitation specialist Hsu Ching-hsing (許景鑫) said the local health authorities would make sure that dioxin levels in ducks or marine products on the market are below the risk level.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
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