HEALTH
H7N9 tests return negative
All 94 people who came into contact with a Chinese tourist who had the H7N9 avian flu virus have tested negative for the virus, the Centers for Disease Control said yesterday. Test results on Tuesday confirmed the Chinese woman had the influenza strain, health officials said. Two other people in her tour group who had developed related symptoms have tested negative for the virus, the centers said. Results of tests on other people, including members of the woman’s family, members of the tour group and some passengers on her flight to Taiwan, have all come back negative, it said. However, 71 people are receiving assistance to help prevent the spread of the virus, it said. While the woman remains hospitalized, the other 32 tour group members left Taiwan yesterday, the centers said.
FOOD SAFETY
Rice-product bill reviewed
Lawmakers yesterday began a review of a bill that would raise the penalties 20-fold for mislabeling, adulteration and false advertising of rice products. The proposed amendment to the Food Administration Act (違反糧食管理法案件處分裁量作業要點) would increase the maximum fine for the offenses from NT$200,000 (US$6,600) to NT$4 million. The maximum fine for manufacturers who refuse an inspection by authorities or fail to disclose their contact information would be increased from NT$150,000 to NT$3 million. Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji (陳保基) said the proposed changes are aimed at preventing manufacturers from blending domestic rice with cheaper imports and passing the products off as purely domestic. Consumers should be given the information necessary to allow them to make informed choices, he said.
FOOD SAFETY
Customs cracks cone case
A 66kg shipment of a brand of South Korean ice cream cones has been blocked from entering the country after the discovery of saccharin, a controlled substance. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday said in a regular weekly report on customs inspections that the Honey Creme cones contained 70mg of saccharin per kilogram. Administration official Hsu Chin-feng (徐錦豐) said that national standards permit the use of saccharin only in watermelon seeds, preserved fruits, soft drinks and special nutrients. For seeds, 2g per kilogram is the maximum allowable level, while for soft drinks it is 200mg per kg. As the saccharin level in the cones is low, the cones already imported do not pose a health hazard, he added. A Taipei company imported three batches of the cones last month and this month. The saccharin was found during a random inspection of the second shipment, but the other two were not checked.
SOCIETY
Jewelry-laden purse found
A police officer on Wednesday found a purse with more than NT$1.3 million (US$42,900) in jewelry at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and returned it to a Hong Kong tourist. While on duty in the airport’s Terminal 2, officer Chao Chung-ming (趙中銘) saw a red purse on a bank counter. It was found to contain a woman’s diamond watch, a 2-carat diamond ring, a pair of pearl earrings and other valuables, worth more than NT$1.3 million. The police checked surveillance video and identified a Hong Kong woman as the purse’s owner, after checking lists of arriving passengers. The travel agency that had booked the woman’s trip was contacted and helped confirm that the tourist had lost her purse. The woman went to the airport on Wednesday to collect her lost valuables and thank Chao.
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:
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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