Yunlin and Changhua county environmental groups yesterday appealed to the Ministry of Health and Welfare to replace a researcher appointed to conduct urine tests on students of Ciaotou Elementary School’s Syucuo (許厝) branch to determine pollution exposure.
They said they wanted someone fairer to do the job.
The Syucuo campus is about 900m from Formosa Petrochemical Corp’s naphtha cracker complex in Yunlin’s Mailiao Township (麥寮), and studies have suggested that long-term exposure to pollutants emitted by the plant might harm human health.
Photo: CNA
The Executive Yuan on Aug. 22 suggested that the county relocate Syucuo’s students to another school for the fall semester to protect their health, referring to a study by the National Health Research Institutes that found significantly higher urinary thiodiglycolic acid (TdGA) levels — an indicator of exposure to vinyl chloride monomer, a carcinogen — in Syucuo’s students.
However, the proposal was strongly opposed by local residents, who said the plan had been drawn up without consulting the students’ parents and other area residents.
They also said that relocating the students would not resolve the pollution problem.
The Health Promotion Administration (HPA) yesterday said that in response to requests from residents, local health and education bureaus last week collected urine samples from Syucuo’s students, and it had asked Lee Ching-chang (李俊璋), a professor at National Cheng Kung University’s environmental and occupational health department, to help test the samples for TdGA levels.
At the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) said there are concerns about the choice of Lee because he has conducted research on the plant before for Formosa Petrochemical Corp, and residents are worried he is partial to the firm.
Taiwan Water Resources Protection Union spokeswoman Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said Lee has conducted health risk evaluations on hazardous air pollutants emitted by the cracker for many years on behalf of the company, so he should avoid a conflict of interest.
“We think Lee has underestimated the cancer risks of pollutants in his research reports,” she said. “While carcinogens, including chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, trichloroethylene and 1,2-dibromoethane, have been detected, he did not include them in his final report.”
Taiwan Healthy Air Action Alliance director Yang Joe-ming (楊澤民) asked if the urine testing plan has passed a human research ethics review.
HPA Community Health Division researcher Lin Chen-su (林真夙) said the tests are being run because the students’ parents and teachers are worried about the children’s health and had requested a team that “they can trust” conduct the tests, which is National Cheng Kung University.
Urine samples are to be collected monthly for four months, she said, adding “this is not a research study … it is only a test in response to parents’ and teachers’ concerns.”
As Lin spoke, Association of Yunlin Art, Culture and Ecology member Lin Fu-yuan (林富源) and Chang Shu-fen (張淑芬), a representative of a women’s health group in Changhua, raised their voices to condemn the government for siding with Formosa Petrochemical and neglecting the health and lives of Yunlin and Changhua residents living near the cracker.
Chen Jiau-hua also asked what the government plans to do with the test results, and whether it has the legitimacy to fund a “non-research” project.
Lin Chen-su said she would convey the groups’ opinions to the ministry.
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