Ahead of the traditional pudu (普渡) religious ceremonies set to take place over the next few weeks, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday urged people to replace the traditional custom of burning paper ghost money with doing good deeds and praying with a respectful heart.
In accordance with traditional religious customs, many people burn paper ghost money to honor the dead during the upcoming Chungyuan Festival (中元節), also known as the Ghost Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar.
However, the burning process worsens the quality of the air and affects the human body, the agency said, adding that long-term exposure to airborne pollutants may cause diseases of the respiratory system, cerebrovascular system and the central nervous system.
The EPA said it has received many petitions about the air pollution caused by burning paper money from the public each year, especially from metropolitan areas where the population density is high and air quality is already poor.
In a bid to reduce the large amount of paper money burnt during this time of the year, the EPA said local environmental protection bureaus have been promoting the concepts of doing good deeds and using rice, flowers or fruits as offerings to the gods and ancestors as replacements for burning the paper money.
In addition, the agency said that if people insist on burning paper “ghost money,” then they should contact their local environmental bureaus so that the money can be collectively burned in an incinerator. This would help maintain good air quality and protect public health, it said, adding that last year the local bureaus gathered 6,518 tonnes of ghost money across the country to be collectively burned in incinerators during pudu ceremonies, helping improve the air quality.
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,
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
HOSPITALITY HIT: Hotels in Hualien have an occupancy rate of 10 percent, down from 30 percent before the earthquake, a Tourism Administration official said The Executive Yuan yesterday unveiled a stimulus package of vouchers and subsidies to revive tourism in Hualien County following a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The tremor on April 3, which killed at least 17 people and left two others missing, caused the county an estimated NT$3 billion (US$92.7 million) in damages. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is to issue vouchers worth NT$200 at the price of NT$100 for purchases at the Dongdamen Night Market (東大門夜市) in Hualien City to boost spending, a ministry official told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in Taipei. The ministry plans to issue 18,400