The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday said a sandstorm from China over the past two days caused air quality to fall to the “unhealthy” level at 28 stations, but air quality was expected to return to normal levels last night.
The EPA’s Environmental Monitoring and Data Processing Bureau said its data and simulations showed that the air quality in northern Taiwan had been affected by sand and pollutants from China carried by the strengthened northeastern monsoon wind on Sunday.
Influenced by the sandstorm, PM10 (fine particle matter in the air smaller than 10 micrometers in size) concentrations reached their highest level on Sunday — 244 micrograms per cubic meter detected at New Taipei City’s (新北市) Wanli Township (萬里), 182 micrograms per cubic meter detected at Yilan County, and 224 micrograms per cubic meter and 194 micrograms per cubic meter detected at Kinmen and Matsu Islands respectively.
At present, the ambient air quality standard set for PM10 in Taiwan is a daily mean concentrations of 125 micrograms per cubic meter and annual mean concentration of 65 micrograms per cubic meter.
In addition to being affected by the sandstorm in China, the air quality in central and southern Taiwan was also worsened by dust, causing the air pollutant concentration level to reach as high as 459 micrograms per cubic meter in Yunlin County’s Taisi Township (台西) and 582 micrograms per cubic meter in Chiayi County’s Puzih City (朴子).
As the northeastern monsoon weakened last night, the EPA has lifted the sandstorm warning .
Even though the northeastern monsoon weakened, the agency said that poor atmospheric dispersion conditions might continue to affect air quality in southern Taiwan, so pe0ople with cardiovascular or respiratory tract diseases should avoid vigorous outdoor physical activities at this time.
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:
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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