Travel
Ministry issues HK advice
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday advised Taiwanese traveling to Hong Kong to be on alert against influenza A(H1N1) infections in view of the rapid spread of the virus there. The ministry said that during the Lunar New Year holiday more than 27,000 flu patients visited public hospitals in Hong Kong for emergency treatment, a record high. Over the past two weeks, nine people in Hong Kong have died of A(H1N1) influenza, with 35 others hospitalized in critical condition. The ministry urged travelers to Hong Kong to exercise caution and visit the Centers for Disease Control Web site (www.cdc.gov.tw) for information, or dial the toll-free 1922 hotline. Taiwanese in Hong Kong who need emergency assistance can contact the Hong Kong office of the Mainland Affairs Council on (852) 61439012 or 93140130.
Retail
Alcohol sales receive boost
Sales of alcoholic beverages rose around the Lunar New Year period, with both state and private distributors experiencing noticeable growth in business, state-owned Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corp (TTL) said. TTL chairman Hsu An-hsuan (徐安旋) said the state-run company’s sales grew 58 percent last month, or NT$620 million (US$21.37 million), year on year. Sales of red label rice wine, a popular cooking wine, jumped by 92 percent last month compared with the previous month, while those of kaoliang grew by more than 50 percent, Hsu said. As a result of recent cold weather, herbal and ginseng wines had also proved popular, he said. Noting that last month’s sales of a variety of TTL liquors were at their highest since the economic crunch began in late 2008, Hsu said this was a clear indication that the economy is picking up.
Environment
Blanket gains rare honor
An eco-friendly blanket produced out of recycled PET bottles by the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation has gained world-renowned carbon footprint reduction certification, the first product of its kind to be recognized in this way. The blanket has a manufacturing process that is fully environmentally friendly from start to finish and is one of the results of Tzu Chi’s efforts in global collaboration to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the foundation based in Hualien County said. The dye-free manufacturing process is wholly energy-effective, reducing carbon emissions and avoiding pollution, which helped the blanket gain the certification from the TUV Rheinland Group, a Germany-based global leader in independent testing and assessment services. This is proof that the blankets are completely non-toxic, the foundation said.
Events
Game show opens on Friday
An annual show in Taipei featuring the latest video and online games will kick off on Friday at the Taipei World Trade Center, organizers said yesterday. The event, which runs until Feb. 22, will showcase games made overseas and several new games made in Taiwan, said the Taipei Computer Association, one of the organizers. Last year, the output of the video game industry reached NT$42.2 billion, a 20 percent increase over the 2009 figure, according to an official with the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Industrial Development Bureau. The show has attracted 50 exhibitors and is expected to draw up to 300,000 visitors. A job fair exclusively for the gaming industry will also take place on Saturday, according to a local job bank. The fair will offer about 800 jobs, both on-site and online, and is expected to attract many visitors.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the