The Consumers’ Foundation and the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) yesterday said that 20 percent of baby walkers in a recent survey were found to contain harmful substances and would be recalled.
The consumer rights watchdog and the BSMI yesterday held a joint press conference to announce the results of the inspections on 10 types of baby walkers on the market. The tests included inspection of seat design, overall structure and labeling.
Inspectors found that two of the baby walkers contained chemical substances that are used as plasticizer at amounts exceeding the legal maximum of 0.1 percent by mass.
“Since babies often lick things or put them in their mouth, plasticizer chemicals could potentially enter babies’ bodies that way and disrupt their endocrine system,” BSMI Deputy Director Chuang Suh-chyin (莊素琴) said.
Chuang said that the chemicals are a type of environmental hormone and act as endocrine disruptors, which can cause males to develop feminine characteristics and can lead to an increased risk of breast cancer in females. The chemicals could also potentially damage the liver and kidneys.
The sub-standard products, priced at more than NT$2,000, were among the relatively expensive types of baby walkers inspected by the authorities. The other eight types of baby walker passed all of the product safety inspections.
“The BSMI has already ordered manufacturers and retailers to take the affected products off the shelves and make immediate improvements,” Chuang said.
The foundation advised parents against putting babies younger than six months old in a baby walker because babies at this age should develop their muscles to learn to sit and crawl. Babies who sit in baby walkers for extended periods of time could hinder muscle development in their feet.
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