HEALTH
No radioactivity found: AEC
The Atomic Energy Council (AEC) yesterday said that it had found no traces of radioactive material following North Korea’s nuclear bomb test. The AEC in a statement said it had stepped up its monitoring since North Korea detonated a hydrogen bomb on Sunday last week, but had detected no unusual levels of radionuclides. The statement came one day after it was reported that South Korea had found traces of radiation. South Korean officials said the levels of radionuclides were low and posed no threat to public safety. The AEC said that low levels of radionuclides are not harmful to human health, but added that it would continue to monitor radiation levels. Radionuclides are unstable atoms with excessive nuclear energy which are produced as a result of nuclear explosions, the AEC said.
WEATHER
Storm forms near Guam
A tropical depression near Guam could develop into this year’s 18th tropical storm and might affect the nation next week, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. As a Pacific high-pressure system remains strong and a front approaches from the north, the storm could begin to affect the nation from Wednesday, bureau forecaster Wu Yi-fan (吳依帆) said, adding that the depression would gain strength as it approaches. Daniel Wu (吳德榮), an independent meteorologist and adjunct professor at National Central University, said it would take at least two days for the depression to develop into a tropical storm. Citing forecasts by US and European authorities, he said that the storm could veer north and approach southern Taiwan on Thursday, and might pose a serious threat in the following two or three days.
HEALTHCARE
Taipei to host congress
More than 1,000 hospital managers, medical professionals and other healthcare industry representatives from 20 nations are to attend the World Hospital Congress in Taipei in November to share their knowledge and experience regarding hospital management. Taiwan Hospital Association consultant Kao Hsiao-lin (高小玲) on Friday said that this is to be the first time that the World Hospital Congress, the International Hospital Federation’s (IHF) cornerstone event, is hosted in Taiwan. This is of special significance, as the IHF works closely with the WHO, which the nation is keen to take part in, Kao said. As “the nation with the best healthcare system in the world,” Taiwan is willing and eager to share its techniques and technology with the global community, she told a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday.
SOCIETY
Physician naturalized
Peter Kenrick, an Australian physician who has practiced in Taitung County for 32 years, on Thursday became a Republic of China citizen. The 60-year-old first arrived in 1985 to provide backup in the emergency room at Taitung St Mary’s Hospital, where there was a staff shortage. He decided to stay after two months, and worked at the hospital for 17 years until he transferred to Taitung Christian Hospital in 2002. Kenrick has traveled by bicycle to nearly every corner of the county to treat patients and volunteers overseas for two months every year with the International Red Cross. His devotion won him the Medical Dedication Award in 2001. He applied for citizenship in May, several months after the Nationality Act (國籍法) was amended to allow foreign nationals who have made special contributions to Taiwan to become a citizen without having to renounce their original citizenship.
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