The acid rain situation nationwide has improved markedly in the past decade, dropping to an incidence rate of about 53 percent during that period, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said yesterday as it announced the results of a 20-year monitoring project.
The EPA said that while acid rain was a rare occurrence in the 1970s, it gradually became more serious in the 1980s, especially in northern parts of the country, as well as near Tainan and Kaohsiung. Acid rain monitoring efforts began in 1990, using pH levels below 5 as a benchmark for acid rain, it said.
Hsieh Yein-Rui (謝燕儒), director-general of the Department of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control, said there are 12 acid rain monitoring stations scattered across the country, adding that data collected from 1999 through this year showed an average acidity level of pH 5.02.
Instances of acid rain remain more common in the north than in the south, it added.
Peng Chi-Ming (彭啟明), co-organizer of the research project and an assistant professor in atmospheric sciences at National Central University (NCU), said acid rain tended to occur more in the spring and fall when the northeast monsoon brings air that is laden with particulates.
The area surrounding Jhongli (中壢), Taoyuan County, has the worst acid rain problem in the nation, with an incidence rate of 75 percent.
About 100 percent of the rain that fell in that area during winter was acid rain, Peng said.
The two principal causes of acid rain in Taiwan are polluted air from abroad — mainly China — and local pollution, said Lin Neng-huei (林能暉), co-organizer of the project and professor of atmospheric sciences at NCU, adding that the two were equally responsible.
However, fog can be more acidic than rain because it contains less water and a higher density of acidic substances, Peng said.
A lot of people fear that being exposed to acid rain will cause baldness, Peng said.
“Actually, getting rained on by acid rain is more of a long-term problem ... if you are exposed to it every day, then eventually it can cause some harm,” Peng said.
Hsieh said the EPA would continue to enforce regulations to control air pollution, as well as communicate with China on the technical aspects of controlling the problem.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS