Thu, Feb 10, 2000 page2

• EPA proposes controls on the use of firecrackers

  AIR QUALITY In a bid to reduce noise pollution, the EPA has drafted new regulations that, if passed into law, would give local governments the power to strictly control the use of firecrackers by the public

  • By Chiu Yu-Tzu / STAFF REPORTER
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  The streets of downtown Taipei were rocked yesterday morning by the deafening explosions of firecrackers set off outside many shops and company offices as they reopened on the fifth day of the new lunar year.

  However, officials from the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday that a draft revising noise regulations -- still awaiting evaluation by the Executive Yuan -- would help environmental authorities maintain better control over the noise of firecrackers and other pyrotechnics.

  Current laws ban the use of firecrackers during nighttime hours, except during important festivals such as Chinese Lunar New Year and the Dragon Boat Festival.

  

  Yesterday was the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, an auspicious day for businesses to resume after the New Year break. But traditionally marking the event by setting off firecrackers may soon become rare, if new noise-control legislation put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency is passed into law.

  PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES

  "We have not banned the use of firecrackers [during these times] so as not to violate traditional customs handed down by our ancestors," said Fang Shu-hwui (方淑惠), a senior specialist at the EPA's bureau of air quality and noise control. "However, we are gradually revising noise control regulations governing not only the use of firecrackers but also other traditional customs, such as temple fairs," Fang said.

  According to Fang, if the draft is approved, violators reported to the EPA could face immediate punitive action, instead of giving them time to cease and desist, as is currently the case.

  "That is one way to discourage people from letting off firecrackers," Fang said.

  But the draft still left local governments with decision-making powers over how to apply the regulations, such as providing restricted zones and setting up times when the use of firecrackers is permitted, Fang said.

  The EPA said firecrackers not only cause noise pollution, but actually pollute the air with the chemical content of their smoke.

  But the EPA added that noise was by far the most serious concern and that the pollution from the smoke was rather minor in comparison to other sources, such as factories and automobiles.

  "It is hard to accurately estimate amount of nitrogen oxide pollution caused to the atmosphere by firecracker use, because of unreliable yearly production data from firecracker manufacturers," Fang said, adding that the EPA did not have any regulations governing materials such as incense smoke.

  In addition to letting off firecrackers yesterday, people also burned paper money in front of their premises or in temples to pray for good fortune, adding to the haze.

  Some Taipei company employees even set off firecrackers on the balconies of buildings where their companies are located, forcing street vendors and pedestrians below to flee showers of burning cinders, according to media reports.

  "We have heard of several initiatives to help control air quality, such as taxing drivers who buy non-environmentally friendly gasoline or diesel oil. What about this?" complained one man.

  Others complaining about the potential danger have suggested an outright ban on firecrackers.

  Since China's largest urban city, Beijing, introduced a ban on firecrackers in December 1993, far fewer people have been injured, and there has been a reduction in the number of fires reported.

  In Singapore, the ban on firecrackers has made the environment during Chinese New Year as clean as it is the rest of the year.

  Regulations governing the firecracker and firework manufacturing industry in Taiwan have been introduced in the past to ensure workers' safety and health.

  But casualties caused to the public by poor-quality firecrackers produced by illegal firecracker plants are common during the New Year holidays.

  According to a spokesman for the Tri-Service General Hospital (三軍總醫院) in Taipei, a five-year-old boy was admitted to the hospital over the recent holdiays with a firecracker stuck in his throat.
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