More than 50,000 high school students chew betel nut, according to a study by the Department of Health.
The study, conducted from 2005 to last year, found a slight increase in betel nut use among high school students.
The ratio of betel nut chewers among junior high school students rose from 1.9 percent in 2005 to 2 percent last year, while for senior high school, it climbed from 3.4 percent to 3.8 percent over the same period.
Based on a total of 920,000 junior high students and 870,000 senior high students, that meant at least 18,000 junior high and 33,000 senior high students have the habit of chewing betel nut, the study said.
About 20 percent of students developed the habit before entering elementary school, the study said.
About 26 percent of the junior high students interviewed said they had their first taste of betel nut at the age of seven, while 29 percent of senior high students reported initiation to the substance at age 14 or 15.
Junior high students said parents and relatives introduced them to the substance, followed by peers, while the opposite was reported among senior high students.
In families that sell betel nuts for a living, parents do not stop their children from chewing the nuts, said Chen Mei-ju (陳美如), section chief of the Bureau of Health Promotion’s cancer control and prevention division.
Some parents even give betel nuts to their children as treats, the study found.
In regions where betel nut farming is extensive, such as Taitung, Chiayi, Hualien, Nantou and Pingtung counties, the increase in oral cancer and teenage betel nut chewing rates are higher than elsewhere in the nation, Chen said.
Betel nut use can lead to oral and esophageal cancer, the Department of Health said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS