The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed amendments to the Toxic Chemical Substances Control Act (毒性化學物質管理法), renaming it the Toxic Chemical Substances Monitoring and Control Act (毒性及化學物質關注管理法) to reflect a new category of controlled chemical substances — those that are non-toxic, but may pose environmental or health hazards.
The new category of chemical substances — called “monitored chemical substances” — should be identified based on domestic or foreign issues pertaining to consumers’ or people’s lives, and publicly announced by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), which is also to formulate measures to regulate such substances, one amendment says.
Entities whose operations entail the use of monitored substances should obtain the approval of the local government before commencing operations, another amendment says.
Photo: Fang Bin-chao, Taipei Times
To help the EPA screen and control chemical substances, a fund is to be set up using the agency’s budget, operating fees it collects from entities that use such substances, allocations from other environmental protection funds, processing fees paid by entities when registering chemical substances, interest and fines, the amendment says.
To streamline policymaking efforts to manage chemical substances, the Executive Yuan, led by the premier, is to convene national chemical substance management meetings with officials at relevant agencies, as well as academics, experts and members of civic groups, it says.
The Executive Yuan is to track each agency’s progress executing decisions reached during the meetings and publish the results in the premier’s administrative reports to the legislature, it says.
In the wake of a deadly fire this April at a printed circuit board factory operated by Chin-Poon Industrial Co in Taoyuan, which killed six firefighters and two Thai employees, the amended act requires entities whose operations involve the use of toxic or monitored chemicals to submit floor plans of their premises when applying for operating permits with local governments.
Firms that have obtained an operating permit should forward a copy of the floor plan to local firefighting departments, it says.
The amended act includes a clause that protects whistle-blowers who report infractions by their employers from retaliation in the form of a demotion, dismissal or salary cut.
Those whose use, production, import or sales of toxic or monitored chemical substances cause deaths could face seven years in jail or a life sentence, in addition to a fine of between NT$5 million and NT$10 million (US$162,338 and US$324,675), while those liable for severe injuries to others face a maximum jail term of 10 years and a maximum fine of NT$5 million, it says.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai