ENVIRONMENT
Taipei targets light pollution
The Taipei City Department of Environmental Protection said yesterday it drafted the country’s first regulations governing light pollution and had sent the bill to the Taipei City Council for approval. Taipei has seen an increasing number of complaints about disruption from lights in recent years, the department said, adding that residential buildings stand next to commercial buildings in many parts of the city. It said a growing number of complaints have been registered about light reflecting off buildings, spotlights and installations giving off an excessive amount of light, the department said. The draft regulation would authorize the city to establish standards of acceptable levels of light in terms of luminance, illuminance and visible reflected light, the department said.
HEALTH
Enterovirus cases on the rise
The number of enterovirus cases is likely to increase as the weather becomes warmer, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, urging the public to be vigilant as the enterovirus season moves toward its peak in late May. The number of cases of infected patients developing severe complications from the enterovirus 71 (EV-71) strain has already reached 20 this year, more than for the same period last year, CDC Deputy Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said. The enterovirus can cause fever, vomiting and blisters and ulcers on hands, feet and around the mouth. EV-71 is a more virulent strain of the intestinal virus, which mainly affects children below the age of five, with some developing fatal neurological illnesses. As the virus is highly contagious, children are advised to avoid crowded places and to wash their hands frequently, Chou said.
MARITIME
Boat capsizes, crew missing
Seven people were missing after a fishing boat capsized in the waters off Keelung on Monday. Among the missing were a Taiwanese captain, four Chinese and two Indonesian crewmembers, the coast guard said yesterday. Rescue efforts have been ongoing since Monday night, the coast guard said. The coast guard said it was notified by a fishery radio station on Sunday that the New Taipei City (新北市)-registered boat might be missing. The boat was confirmed on Monday night as having capsized. The coast guard said it dispatched 38 members to search for survivors and has asked the National Rescue Command Center for four helicopters to assist in the operation.
DIPLOMACY
Japanese thank school
Members of Japan’s Hyogo Prefectural Assembly visited Jian Min Elementary School in Greater Taichung yesterday to thank the school for its donation of NT$670,000 (US$22,650) to Japan after a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March last year. Hyogo Prefectural Assembly Speaker Shinobu Kamo said he was overwhelmed by the passion and enthusiasm of Jian Min’s students. Jian Min was rebuilt with the help of donations of more than NT$70 million from Hyogo Prefecture after an earthquake struck central Taiwan in 1999. The school’s teachers and more than 200 students returned the Japanese prefecture’s generosity by donating part of their salaries and allowances following the disaster in Japan. Kamo said he was amazed by the beauty of the school campus, which was rebuilt at a cost of more than NT$150 million.
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
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
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
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,