The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) appear to be passing the buck over the urine test results of schoolchildren in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮).
National Cheng Kung University had accepted a commission by the HPA to conduct a three-month urine sample test for the 62 students at Mailiao’s Ciaotou Elementary School’s Syucuo (許厝) branch.
The results showed that after relocation to the main campus in September last year, students experienced a spike in thiodiglycolic acid (TDGA), a metabolin of vinyl chloride or polyvinyl chloride, in their urine samples.
The students were relocated due to their school’s proximity to Formosa Plastic Group’s naphtha cracker in Mailiao, which was only 900m away.
However, according to statistics made public on Tuesday by a parent of a child at the Syucuo branch, the children’s TDGA concentration was higher after the relocation back to the main campus than before.
According to the statistics, prior to the relocation on Sept. 2 last year, the children averaged 30 parts per billion of TDGA. That increased to 290 parts per billion in October last year, before falling slightly in November and last month.
In response to the statistics, HPA Director Wang Ying-wei (王英偉) said some environmental factors must be deducted from urine tests and that such information should be supplied by the EPA’s environmental test results.
After combining both sets of data, the HPA would then invite experts and local government officials to discuss a solution, Wang said.
The urine sample statistics are only an indirect indicator and the EPA’s environmental monitoring statistics are the direct indicator that would provide a solution, Wang said.
However, EPA Air Quality Protection Division Director Tsai Hung-te (蔡鴻德) said the agency had been monitoring the air quality around the naphtha cracker and the school since August last year and that the HPA should be the organization to decide about the effects on the children’s health.
Lee Chun-chang (李俊璋), head of the university team running the tests, said he asked the HPA for permission to clarify the results with the parents, but had not received such permission.
One of the parents, Hsu Fang-yu (許芳餘), said a decision should be made after the HPA receives a more complete report, adding that the parents want their children to return to the Syucuo branch for the new semester if possible.
Meanwhile, Yunlin County Bureau of Health Director Wu Chao-chun (吳昭軍) said the HPA must be responsible for the issue.
The statistics cited did not exclude environmental factors, such as the naphtha cracker’s vinyl chloride monomer undergoing annual maintenance in September last year and resuming operations in October, Wu said.
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