Students at Ciaotou Elementary School’s Syucuo (許厝) branch in Yunlin County, near the nation’s sixth naphtha cracker complex in the county’s Mailiao Township (麥寮), are to be relocated to the school’s main campus for the coming semester after urine test results this month suggested that the students may have been be subject to excessive vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) exposure.
The elementary school last week announced that the 76 students, along with staff, at the Syucou branch are to attend classes at its main campus.
A study conducted by the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) earlier this month showed the Syucuo students’ urine contained elevated levels of thiodiglycolic acid (TDGA), a major metabolite and indicator of VCM, which is a known carcinogen and a gas released after standard processing by the plant.
The average measurement taken from students at the Syucuo branch, which is about 900m from the Formosa Plastics Group plant, was 192.08 micrograms per cretanine — almost double that of students from the school’s three other branches, including the main campus, which is roughly 2.5km from the plant, the study showed.
According to the NRHI, although there are several possible reasons for the human body to excrete elevated levels of TDGA, such as exposure to cigarette smoke, and although there has not been any solid proof that it is a direct result of FPG-emitted VCM, the metabolite is a worldwide standard indicator when conducting health risks on factory workers extensively exposed to the carcinogen.
An NRHI official, who refused to be named, said that the institute seeks to expand its research by collecting a larger pool of TDGA measurements, such as those from city-dwellers and people who live in rural areas, and compare them with the Syucuo measurements.
Despite the decision to relocate the students, some parents are upset about the school’s arrangement.
With classrooms at the main campus already nearing capacity, school administrators have set up fiber board compartments in classrooms, resulting in an even more cramped learning environment, parents said.
Parent Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said she felt powerless when she learned that her child is to attend school on the main campus and that if she was given a choice, she would rather her child stay at the Syucuo branch.
“So the air near the Syucuo branch is polluted and the air near the three other branches is not?” she said. “What the government should do is to tighten controls on the pollution caused by the No. 6 naphtha plant, not send our kids to this crowded, terrible learning environment.
Additional reporting by Cheng Shu-kai
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