The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday released a survey of 40,720 environmental agents, including mosquito repellents imported from Japan, that are not registered in Taiwan.
Pesticides, miticides, rodenticides and bactericides are common environmental agents, some of which are applied to human skin and others used in the surroundings, EPA Toxic and Chemical Substances Bureau Director-General Hsieh Yan-ju (謝燕儒) said.
The bureau last year worked with local environmental departments nationwide to investigate the online advertisements, product labeling, ingredients and effects of such agents, he said.
As the weather becomes warmer, pesticides and repellents have begun gaining popularity on online shopping Web sites, but the survey found that 37 of 10,045 online advertisements illegally touted environmental agents that are not registered in Taiwan, mostly mosquito-repellent pads imported from Japan, Hsieh said.
As they are not registered, the safety and efficacy of the pads cannot be guaranteed, regardless of how popular they are on the Internet, bureau Hazard Control Division Associate Technical Specialist Hong Ching-I (洪靜宜) said.
A total of 48 environmental agents were found to be unregistered counterfeit medicine, including one product imported from China that contains the banned insecticide Mirex, whose importer faces a fine of between NT$300,000 and NT$1.5 million (US$10,217 and US$51,086) for breaching provisions of the Environmental Agents Control Act (環境用藥管理法), he said.
A bioaccumulative pollutant, Mirex is banned by the EPA and regulated under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, Hsieh said.
The survey also found that 323 environmental agents have unclear product labeling, mainly because they are of inferior quality or their effective dates have lapsed, and one product was found to contain excessive amounts of the insecticide transfluthrin, he said.
People should identify what pests are bothering them and apply a proper amount of agents approved by the agency, Hsieh said, urging the public to be more careful when applying chemicals as summertime approaches.
People who purchase environmental agents abroad are allowed to carry a maximum of 1kg of solid or 1 liter of liquid agents in carry-on luggage, but they are forbidden from promoting chemicals that are not registered in Taiwan, Hong said.
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