Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) yesterday urged the Cabinet to send an amendment to the Air Pollution Control Act (空氣污染防制法) proposed by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to the legislature for review soon.
Even though the EPA’s amendment is not listed as one of the 72 priority bills for this legislative session, it should be reviewed as soon as possible, Liu said during a public hearing at the Legislative Yuan, which was also attended by DPP legislators Chung Kung-chao (鍾孔炤), Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) and Hung Tsung-yi (洪宗熠).
The proposal was sent to the Executive Yuan at the end of last month, but the Ministry of Economic Affairs expressed disagreement with some points, EPA Department of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control Director-General Tsai Hung-teh (蔡鴻德) said.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
The EPA proposed that it would only “notify” the ministry when it is to impose regulations on industrial emissions, while the ministry insisted the agency should still obtain its approval, he said, adding that the EPA would insist on its position.
Lawmakers and groups concerned about air pollution are to visit Premier William Lai (賴清德) in coming days, asking him to come up with a concrete response to the issue, Liu said.
Air pollution has led to “environmental injustice,” as people in the center and south breathe dirtier air, National Taiwan University College of Public Health dean Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權) said.
The EPA’s regulations are only superficial and it should introduce policies such as phasing out petroleum cokes in power generation by 2020 and raw coal by 2030, he added.
Scientific studies have confirmed the correlation between exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, reduced kidney functioning and other respiratory problems, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Director Guo Yue-liang (郭育良) said.
While government hopes to keep the yearly average PM2.5 concentration below 15 micrometers per cubic meter and 24-hour average below 35 micrometers per cubic meter, it should follow the WHO’s stricter standards, setting the yearly average at 10 micrometers per cubic meter and the 24-hour average at 25 micrometers per cubic meter, he said.
The nation last year did not meet the govenment’s target, as the average PM2.5 concentration last year was 20 micrometers per cubic meter, EPA data released last month showed.
The EPA should use part of its air pollution fund to undertake studies on the health of residents in or near industrial areas, the Southern Taiwan Anti-Air Pollution Alliance and other groups said in a statement after the meeting.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,