A worker cleaning a waste incinerator in Tsaotun township (草屯鎮), Nantou County, was killed when residue on the inside wall of the incinerator collapsed, burying him.
According to Lin Bing-tsai (
It took firemen wearing heat-resistant protective suits hours to find Liang's body, which was buried in hot quartz sand heated to about 70?C. His body was eventually removed from the hot furnace early yesterday morning.
Prosecutors yesterday examined Liang's body, attributing his death to suffocation and burns.
Lin said the township office had given Liang's family NT$20,000 as commpensation.
The incinerator, whose daily capacity is 95 tonnes of waste, was built by Chujan Environmental Engineering Service (
The incinerator went into operation in December last year. A one-week regular clean-up and maintenance session began last Friday.
According to Lai Yung-sheng (
Lai said the clean-up was processed according to standard operating procedures, which regulate working conditions such as temperature, oxygen, the maximum time that workers can stay inside and the stabilization of scaffolds.
"The death was a pure accident caused by the falling of the residue inside the incinerator," Lai said.
Li Hsin-jung (李信融), an official of Nantou County's Environmental Protection Bureau, said the bureau had nothing to do with the accident.
"Local environmental officials only supervise the operation of waste incinerators to see if emissions meet regulations and how much household waste is treated," Li said.
According to Li labor affairs officials have not demanded an immediate shutdown, because all maintenance followed the stan-dard operating procedures.
People opposed to incinerators said yesterday that Liang's death could be attributed to lax accident prevention measures at incinerators.
"Local environmental authorities should strictly supervise not only the operation but also the maintenance of incinerators," said George Cheng (鄭益明), secretary-general of the Taiwan Watch Institution.
Environmentalists say the maintenance of incinerators constructed under build-operate-transfer contracts is exempt from government supervision. According to activists, safety sometimes relies on luck.
Activists said there are no guidelines regarding the maintenance of waste incinerators established by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), which has strongly promoted burning-oriented waste management policies since the 1990s.
RESOLUTIONS DEBATE: Taiwan’s allies said that UN and WHA resolutions cited by China and other nations ‘do not determine Taiwan’s participation in WHO activities’ A proposal to invite Taiwan to this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) was rejected on Monday, resulting in Taipei’s absence from the annual meeting for a ninth consecutive year, although partners spoke up for Taiwan’s participation at the first day of the meeting. The first agenda item after the opening was a “two-on-two debate” on a proposal to invite Taiwan to participate at the WHA as an observer. Similar to previous years, two countries made statements in favor of the proposal, while two others expressed their opposition. Philippine Secretary of Health Teodoro Herbosa, president of the 78th WHA, accepted the WHA General Committee’s
Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr arrived in Taiwan last night to kick off his first visit to the country since beginning his second term earlier this year. After arriving at Taoyuan International Airport at around 6:30 pm, Whipps and his delegation were welcomed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍). Speaking to gathered media, the Palauan leader said he was excited and honored to be back in Taiwan on his first state visit to Taiwan since he was sworn in this January. Among those traveling with Whipps is Minister of State Gustav N. Aitaro, Public Infrastructure
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) on Friday laid out the Cabinet’s updated policy agenda and recapped the government’s achievements ahead of the one-year anniversary of President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration. Cho said the government had made progress across a range of areas, including rebuilding Hualien, cracking down on fraud, improving pedestrian safety and promoting economic growth. “I hope the public will not have the impression that the Cabinet only asked the legislature to reconsider a bunch of legal amendments,” Cho said, calling the moves “necessary” to protect constitutional governance and the public’s interest. The Cabinet would work toward achieving its “1+7” plan, he said. The
Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) hosted a dinner in Taipei last night with key Taiwanese suppliers to celebrate the successful mass production of the company’s new Blackwell AI systems. Speaking to the media earlier yesterday, Huang thanked Nvidia’s Taiwanese partners for their contributions to the company’s ecosystem, while also sharing his plans to meet with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀). In response to rumors that Nvidia will launch a downgraded Hopper H20 chip for China in July, Huang dismissed the reports, saying, “That is not true.” He clarified that there
RSS