A legislator yesterday urged the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) to develop an earthquake early-warning system like that used in Japan.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said it would be discussed by the National Communications Commission.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) told the legislature’s Transportation Committee the government should learn from Japan and establish an early-warning system.
He said that before the earthquake that rattled Japan on March 11 last year, Japanese received a warning message sent through cellphone text messages, the Internet and TV — giving at least an extra 20 seconds for people living nearby to seek shelter or evacuate, and more than 40 seconds for those living in Tokyo.
The Central Weather Bureau’s earthquake early-warning technology and equipment are as good as that in Japan, but they cannot send a warning message to the public, Lee said.
Mao said the earthquake warning message in Japan was sent largely through digital audio broadcast, which is a function that the Japanese government had asked to be built into cellphones, but which most cellphones in Taiwan lack. He said that for cellphones to be equipped with such a function, the nation’s communication network would need to be reconstructed and related laws would need to be amended.
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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