A child unintentionally discharged pepper spray on Saturday on Taipei’s MRT railway system, resulting in the evacuation of hundreds of passengers, with many commuters saying they were unhappy with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s response to the incident.
Taipei Rapid Transit Corp spokesman Lin Chi-yao (凌啟堯) on Sunday confirmed the incident, saying a child used pepper spray belonging to a relative as a train was arriving at Sanchong Station (三重) on the Zhonghe-Xinlu Line (中和新蘆).
About 300 people were affected by the fumes and most people evacuated the train on their own, while station staff instructed remaining passengers to evacuate and wait for the next train, Lin said, adding that the situation was resolved in about four minutes.
No one on the scene requested medical assistance, but commuters who felt ill as a result of the incident and went to a hospital are to be reimbursed if they bring medical documents and their EasyCard to a customer service station, Lin said.
The adult responsible for the child who caused the incident is to be fined NT$10,000 under Article 50-1 of the Mass Rapid Transit Act (大眾捷運法), which forbids interference with the normal operations of the MRT, Lin said.
Pepper spray is known to accidentally discharge, Lin said, adding that commuters who carry such devices should handle their belongings with extra care.
Several commuters said they were unhappy with how the incident was handled.
“Everyone was coughing and a whole day later my throat still feels bad. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp told us that a child had accidentally discharged pepper spray, but did not tell us what to do or whether pepper spray is harmful. They did not do anything for us afterward,” passenger Hung Shao-chin (洪少欽) said on Sunday.
Chang Gung Memorial Hospital Division of Clinical Toxicology director Yen Tzung-hai (顏宗海) said the composition of commercially available pepper spray varies greatly, with some comprised of chili powder or chili liquid mixed with other irritants, and some brands deploy 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile compounds, or “CS gas.”
Inhalation or contact could lead to coughing, involuntary tear secretions or, in severe cases, cause asthma attacks, while skin contact could result in painful inflammation, Yen said.
People exposed to pepper spray who experience ongoing discomfort should seek medical treatment, Yen said.
Additional reporting by Chiu Yi-tung
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