The Taipei City Government has begun holding betel nut withdrawal classes to help people who regularly chew the product to combat their addiction as the number of new cases of oral cancer continues to climb.
The classes are to become mandatory for people who are caught spitting betel nut juice or throwing betel nut residue on public ground, but they are also open for people who are looking advice on how to stop chewing.
People who spit betel nut juice are subject to a fine ranging from NT$1,200 to NT$6,000, according to the Waste Disposal Act (廢棄物清理法).
Starting yesterday, they are required to also attend the classes, and no-shows will be punished by a fine ranging from NT$5,000 to NT$300,000.
According to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2012, more than 5,700 Taiwanese people are diagnosed with oral cancer each year, 2,300 of whom are killed by the disease.
Oral cancer is particularly prevalent among men, mainly because the majority of the nation’s betel nut eaters are male.
People who regularly chew betel nut are 28 times more likely to come down with the disease that people who do not, the statistics showed.
The statistics showed that of the nation’s approximately 2 million betel nut chewers, 16.4 percent are aged from 40 to 49 and 15.3 percent are aged from 30 to 39, representing the two largest age brackets.
The habit is also correlated with education: Junior-high-school graduates account for the largest percentage of the country’s betel nut chewing population (21.2 percent), trailed by senior-high-school graduates (15.3 percent) and diploma holders (3.4 percent).
“The courses will invite a number of specialists to teach people how to quit chewing betel nuts, such as National Taiwan University’s Department of Dentistry professor Hahn Liang-jiunn (韓良俊), who is dubbed the ‘father of betel nut prevention,’ and Taipei City Xinyi District Health Center head nurse Lin Yueh-liang (林岳良),” the city government’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said.
DEP Director Wu Sheng-chung (吳盛忠) said spitting betel nut juice and incorrectly disposing of residue damages the environment and poses a potential threat to public health.
“We hope that the classes help create a win-win situation for the city,” Wu said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
RSS