Long-time environmental campaigner Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) yesterday expounded on what she said are problems with environmental impact assessment (EIA) meetings, saying that health-risk assessments should be conducted in a more accurate and comprehensive manner, while calling on local governments to dutifully calculate the quantity of pollutants emitted.
Chen said that many EIA committee members readily accept emissions data provided by industrial projects, without really going through the data to analyze their veracity.
The committee should order corporations to calculate not only the emissions from plants that are slated for expansion, but also the total quantity of emissions from industrial complexes, as it is the only method by which pollutants can truly be capped and the concept of “overall amount control” be put into practice, Chen said.
“In doing so, local authorities can avoid areas where emissions are already heavy before a new project is proposed, and disputes can be avoided,” Chen said.
She called on local governments to be more proactive in matters related to the EIA, saying that they often only set emission caps according to the maximum permissible amount of emissions stipulated by the committee, while being negligent about their duties to measure emissions at plants, she said.
In addition, local environmental protection agencies should conduct their own health risk assessments at least once every two years and compare them with assessments conducted by project owners, rather than assuming that all the information in reports required from developers by the Environmental Protection Administration is true, Chen said.
In reference to research by National Taiwan University Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene professor Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權), which linked emissions from the naphtha cracker complex in Yunlin County to elevated chances of developing cancer, Chen said the EIA committee did not give the research the attention it deserves.
“All government-sponsored epidemiological studies should be treated with due respect and serve as important references during EIA meetings,” she said.
She called for a more clearly defined set of rules on how health risk assessments should be conducted, saying that the current rules have resulted in the lack of a standard operating procedure in approaches adopted by companies while conducting health risk assessments.
Chen, a professor at the Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, is well-known for her active participation in EIA meetings and her unrelenting stance against firms in pollution-intensive industries.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
RSS