The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday said it is to impose a ban on cosmetics and toothpastes containing plastic microbeads next year to prevent plastic particle water pollution.
“The EPA will ban the production, importation and sale of personal care products and toothpastes containing microbeads next year at the earliest,” Department of Waste Management Director Wu Sheng-chung (吳盛忠) said.
Wu made the announcement at a news conference convened by Taiwan Watch Institute and Greenpeace Taiwan calling for the phasing out of the use of microbeads in cosmetics and toothpastes — the latest in a series of such attempts since last year.
Microbeads are tiny plastic particles that are widely used in exfoliating agents. They are too small to be picked up by sewage filtration systems so they enter the ocean and food chain, causing damage to human health, Taiwan Watch Institute researcher Sun Wei-tzu (孫瑋孜) said.
“Microbeads are smaller than most plastic debris in the ocean and are consumed by marine organisms. Microbeads absorb organic pollutants around them, making them like pills of highly concentrated toxins,” Sun said.
A study published last week in the academic journal Science found that perch larvae exposed to microplastic particles showed lower growth rates, lower activity levels and higher mortality rates, and that larvae prefer eating microbeads to their natural food source zooplankton, Sun said.
A Belgian study in 2014 showed that microbeads had been found in farmed oysters, and it was estimated that European shellfish consumers ingested about 11,000 microbeads per year.
While the use of microbeads is banned in Canada and is to be prohibited in the US, a survey by the institute found that 42 percent of personal care products sold in Taiwan contain microbeads, with a tube of facial foam containing hundreds of thousands of particles, institute secretary-general Herlin Hsieh (謝和霖) said.
Microbeads are also present in products that do not advertise a scrubbing or peeling function.
A survey of 6,526 people conducted by the institute showed that 65 percent of respondents wanted microbeads to be banned within six months.
While supporting the banning of the substance, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said the agency should speed up the ban.
“The EPA should do the right thing immediately if it really wants to break away from its role as a passive and submissive agency, as EPA Minister Lee Ying-yuan [李應元] has said. The most urgent tasks now are banning microbeads and controlling slag,” Lin said.
“Microbeads have a limited exfoliating effect, but a significant impact on the environment, and banning the substance is advantageous to everyone but manufacturers. Why do we have to protect manufacturers of harmful products?” Hsieh said.
The institute has developed a smartphone application to enable users to scan barcodes of cosmetic products to check whether they contain microbeads. The app can be downloaded from the institute’s Web site.
LOW RISK: Most nations do not extradite people accused of political crimes, and the UN says extradition can only happen if the act is a crime in both countries, an official said China yesterday issued wanted notices for two Taiwanese influencers, accusing them of committing “separatist acts” by criticizing Beijing, amid broadening concerns over China’s state-directed transnational repression. The Quanzhou Public Security Bureau in a notice posted online said police are offering a reward of up to 25,000 yuan (US$3,523) for information that could contribute to the investigation or apprehension of pro-Taiwanese independence YouTuber Wen Tzu-yu (溫子渝),who is known as Pa Chiung (八炯) online, and rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源). Wen and Chen are suspected of spreading content that supported secession from China, slandered Chinese policies that benefit Taiwanese and discrimination against Chinese spouses of
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
PROMOTION: Travelers who want a free stopover must book their flights with designated travel agents, such as Lion Travel, Holiday Tours, Cola Tour and Life Tours Air Canada yesterday said it is offering Taiwanese travelers who are headed to North America free stopovers if they transit though airports in Japan and South Korea. The promotion was launched in response to a potential rise in demand for flights to North America in June and July next year, when the US, Canada and Mexico are scheduled to jointly host the FIFA World Cup, Air Canada said. Air Canada offers services to 13 of the 16 host cities of the tournament’s soccer games, including Toronto and Vancouver; Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey in Mexico; Atlanta, Georgia; Boston; Dallas; Houston;
The US approved the possible sale to Taiwan of fighter jet spare and repair parts for US$330 million, the Pentagon said late yesterday, marking the first such potential transaction since US President Donald Trump took office in January. "The proposed sale will improve the recipient's capability to meet current and future threats by maintaining the operational readiness of the recipient's fleet of F-16, C-130," and other aircraft, the Pentagon said in a statement. Trump previously said that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has told him he would not invade Taiwan while the Republican leader is in office. The announcement of the possible arms
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