President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) reaffirmed his commitment to vocational safety yesterday, saying that "the interests of greater industrial production cannot compare to the value of the lives of workers."
The president made the remarks when he received Shih Tung-sheng (
Shih is this year's recipient of the annual William P. Yant Outstanding Industrial Hygienist Award bestowed by the American Industrial Hygiene Association.
The winner of the award, named after the first president of the association, is someone who has made a great contribution to the promotion of industrial hygiene.
The president extended his congratulations to Shih, saying that this is the first time that someone from Taiwan has ever received the award since it was established in 1964.
Chen also noted that he had first met Shih in September 2000 after Shih received an award from the same association for a research paper.
The president said that since the Labor Safety Law (
He said that Council of Labor Affairs Chairwoman Chen Chu (
Chen Chu's goal was to reduce major vocational casualties by 40 percent in four years, he said, adding that statistics have shown that the vocational casualty rate was cut by 23 percent in 2001 and 30.1 percent last year, surpassing her goal for the second consecutive year.
The president said that this was not enough, adding "Our goal is zero vocational disasters and zero accidents."
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
The cosponsors of a new US sanctions package targeting Russia on Thursday briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation and said the legislation would also have a deterrent effect on China and curb its ambitions regarding Taiwan. The bill backed by US senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations such as China and India, which account for about 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade, the bankroll of much of its war effort. Graham and Blumenthal told The Associated Press
INTEL: China’s ships are mapping strategic ocean floors, including near Guam, which could aid undersea cable targeting and have military applications, a report said China’s oceanographic survey and research ships are collecting data in the Indo-Pacific region — possibly to aid submarine navigation, detect or map undersea cables, and lay naval mines — activities that could have military applications in a conflict with Taiwan or the US, a New York Times report said. The article, titled “China Surveys Seabeds Where Naval Rivals May One Day Clash,” was written by Chris Buckley and published on Thursday. Starboard Maritime Intelligence data revealed that Chinese research ships last year repeatedly scanned the ocean floor east of Taiwan’s maritime border, and about 400km east and west of Guam; “waters that
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