ENVIRONMENT
Bio-PET bottle launched
The first bio-PET water bottle made from plant-based material was unveiled yesterday, a development its manufacturer said sets the stage for future trends in the industry. Although the newly developed bottle, which contains 30 percent plant extract, is costly and can only be used once, it represents a new trend as it helps reduce carbon emissions, Plastics Industry Development Center president Michael Lin (林志清) said. The center, which launched the bottle in collaboration with local suppliers, donated 100,000 bio-PET bottles of mineral water to Jenn Lann Temple (鎮瀾宮) in Greater Taichung’s Dajia District (大甲) yesterday, in celebration of the Mazu International Festival. The water bottles will be offered to visitors taking part in the festival, which began last week and runs through next month.
TRAVEL
Numbers up for Australia
The number of Taiwanese granted working holiday trips to Australia in the second half of last year nearly doubled from 2011, Representative to Australia Katharine Chang (張小月) said. The Australian government issued 17,969 working holiday visas to young Taiwanese adults in the latter half of last year, second only to the UK’s 24,135, statistics from Australian immigration authorities showed, she said. That was a 97.2 percent increase from the same period of 2011, Chang said. Meanwhile, more Taiwanese working holidaygoers in Australia are applying to spend a second year there, she said. As of the end of last year, there were 22,027 Taiwanese on working holidays in Australia, making Taiwan the third-largest source of such travelers after the UK and South Korea.
ENVIRONMENT
Earth Hour marked tonight
Taiwan will join the international Earth Hour campaign today by mobilizing public support for worldwide efforts to protect the environment. About 1 million people in Taiwan are expected to participate in the global action of turning off their lights between 8:30pm and 9:30pm. which will save an estimated 100,000kWh of electricity in the nation, said the Society of Wilderness, one of the local organizers. As of yesterday, the society’s campaign page on Facebook had drawn more than 36,000 followers. Last year, about 600,000 people in Taiwan joined the Earth Hour effort, the society said. It said several local entities, such as Taipei 101’s management and local governments, are expected take part in the one-hour lights out campaign.
ENVIRONMENT
Drought team boosted
The government upgraded the level of its drought response team yesterday as water levels around the country continued to drop due to scant rainfall this spring. The team is now headed by Vice Minister of Economics Woody Duh (杜紫軍).The upgraded team is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Wednesday to discuss possible measures to fight drought and reduce its impact on the public, officials said. First-phase water rationing has been adopted in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli counties, Greater Kaohsiung and New Taipei City’s (新北市) Linkou District (林口), with water pressure reduced at night to conserve resources. Meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said the nation often suffers from water shortage in winter and spring because of overreliance on spring rains. He said the nation must address the problem by “conserving existing water resources and developing new ones.”
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
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not