Tue, Dec 07, 1999 page2

• Authorities play down dioxin scare

  DIOXIN CONTAMINATION The EPA has moved to quell fears of high dioxin levels which were sparked by a report released by an environmental foundation

  • By Chiu Yu-Tzu / STAFF REPORTER
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  The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) tried to calm public fears yesterday over reports Sunday that the public was under threat from increasingly high levels of dioxins -- a suspected carcinogen -- spewed into the air by incinerators.

  EPA officials from the Bureau of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control (空保處) said yesterday that more than NT$1.5 million would be spent on replacing facilities at the five oldest incinerators in Taiwan to reduce the concentration of dioxin.

  "All the improvements would be done by the end of next year," said Hsiao Hui-chuan (蕭慧娟), the bureau's deputy director-general.

  The EPA is also conducting a survey of dioxin concentration accumulated in human blood and the soil near two old incinerators in Mucha (木柵) and Hsintien (新店), Taipei County, as well as in the southern part of Taoyuan County, where a new incinerator is to be built, Hsiao said.

  "We might also add two old incinerators, Shihlin (樹林) and Neihu (內湖), to the scope of the survey, to produce more reference for future studies," she said.

  The report released Sunday by the Environmental Quality Protection Foundation (FQPF, 環境品質文教基金會) shows Taiwanese are exposed to high levels of dioxins.

  According to the report, ten schools and four communities in Taipei City located near where dioxin is emitted from five old incinerator stacks have accumulated high levels of dioxin blown into the communities by wind currents.

  The concentration of dioxins in certain areas on the island is more than 2,000 times the acceptable level in the US.

  However, EPA officials argued yesterday that the credibility of the report is questionable.

  "We need to be very careful about the methodology used in compiling the report. It might have used improper parameters," Hsiao said.

  In the absence of background data about dioxins in the human body and the soil, EPA officials still believe that the use of advanced incinerator technologies would control the dioxin concentration to ensure residents a good environment in which to live.

  In Kaohsiung City, an EPA official working at a newly opened incinerator said that the concentration of dioxins tested earlier this year was far below the maximum acceptable level set by the EPA.

  "The operating procedure at the incinerator has received ISO-14001 certification," said Yang Han-tsung (楊漢宗), an EPA official from Kaohsiung Central Waste Incinerator (高雄中區資源回收廠). He added that they can control the emissions through the use of technology.

  However, according to a report provided by German incinerator experts, who were invited by the EPA to investigate incinerators on the island in September, compiling background data for dioxins in the human body and the soil should be the government's first priority.

  "German experts said in the report that the argument over the standard of dioxin emission levels in Taiwan is nonsense because no available background data is available. They suggested that we should study the dioxin levels in food chains first because more than 95 percent of dioxin accumulated in human body is from the food people eat," an EPA official said.
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