The Consumers’ Foundation yesterday called for the mandatory labeling of beef products containing ractopamine, based on what it described as “an inference” that the drug “might worsen cancer.”
The group based its claim on its interpretation of a study that tracked 500 breast cancer patients over a decade and found that the risk of cancer spreading and death were reduced significantly in patients taking a ractopamine blocker, said Su Wei-shuo (蘇偉碩), a psychiatrist and a foundation official.
The study, by researchers from Nottingham Trent University in the UK and Witten/Herdecke University in Germany, found chances of cancer spreading were down 57 percent and the 10-year death rate fell 72 percent in breast cancer patients treated with a ractopamine blocker.
While the study did not conclude that ractopamine could cause cancer to spread, Su said such a possibility “can be inferred.”
Moreover, separate experiments have shown that cancer-infected mice injected with ractopamine see their cancer spread showed an increase 30 times greater than their counterparts that were not given the drug, Su said.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare questioned the foundation’s claim, but said it would collect more information.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
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
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.
RSS