Several draft amendments to the Toxic Chemical Substances Control Act (毒性化學物質管理法) yesterday passed their first reading at the legislature, and would require more plant operators with chemical substances to submit floor plans of their factories to local governments.
The issue of chemical management has received renewed attention since a deadly fire at Chin-Poon Industrial Co’s (敬鵬工業) printed circuit board factory in Taoyuan on April 28 killed six firefighters and two Thai employees.
Members of the Legislative Yuan’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee yesterday met to review the draft amendments, after requiring governmental agencies to report on the management of chemicals on Monday last week.
Most draft amendments passed the first reading smoothly, while eight clauses and certain motions proposed by lawmakers were reserved for subsequent cross-party negotiation.
Due to its work with thiourea, an acid listed as a potentially toxic substance, the Chin-Poon factory had been required to submit its chemical storage plans to the Taoyuan Department of Environmental Protection, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Toxic and Chemical Substances Bureau Director-General Hsieh Yen-ju (謝燕儒) said yesterday.
The requirement for companies to provide floor plans is not new policy made in the wake of the Chin-Poon accident, Hsieh said, but added that its scope would be expanded.
The management of chemicals is currently divided among various governmental agencies, but if draft amendments are passed, the Cabinet would establish a national board for chemical management, with the EPA serving as the board’s adviser, he said.
In addition to companies using toxic chemicals, those using chemicals that are not toxic, but potentially harmful to human health would also be required to submit their chemical storage plans to local governments, he said.
Apart from presenting their disaster plans to local governments, companies that use chemicals should also post the plans on designated Web sites for members of the public to access, as required by a resolution launched by Chinese National Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) and accepted by the bureau.
While the EPA has been tracking the locations of vehicles delivering toxic chemicals, it should also evaluate if it is possible to make the information public, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wu Kun-yuh (吳焜裕) said in one of his motions, which were reserved for cross-party negotiation due to his absence yesterday.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS