Facing cold weather, some drivers let their car engine run for a few minutes before driving away, a practice that is harmful to air quality, a recent study by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) showed.
Using a device called a Proton Transfer Reaction Mass (PTR-MS) to monitor air quality in an underground parking lot between the peak hours of 8am and 8:20am and 5pm and 5:20pm, the EPA said comparisons of benzene and acrolein densities in the air between peak and off-peak hours showed the average density of the two pollutants was 3.9 times and 3.8 times higher in the afternoon peak hours than off-peak hours.
The study also showed the average density of both -substances was 1.6 times and 2.5 times higher in the morning peak hours than during off-peak.
“We think the results may have something to do with the fact that many drivers do not leave immediately after they start their car engine,” said Wu Yueh-chuen (巫月春), a section chief at the EPA’s Environmental Analysis Laboratory. “The underground parking lot may not be equipped with a ventilation system either, which could explain the surge in density.”
Benzene is produced when there is an effusion of diesel or gasoline. Acrolein, for its part, is a volatile organic compound produced when there is incomplete combustion.
Long-term exposure to benzene can lead to leukemia, while acrolein can damage lungs and increase the risk of cancer.
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