Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that the city’s tap water conformed to safety standards and urged residents not to panic over health concerns raised by lead water pipes.
Ko yesterday said on Facebook that both the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the WHO set the recommended value of lead concentrations in raw water and in tap water at no more than 0.05 and 0.01 milligram per liter (mg/L), and inspection results indicated that the water quality in the two municipalities conformed to these standards.
Results released by the Taipei Water Department showed that lead concentrations in raw water were either too low to be detected or below 0.0089 mg/L, while concentrations in tap water were either undetectable or below 0.0017 mg/L.
He said that lead has the benefits of being flexible and resilient against pressure, and was therefore a common material worldwide for producing water pipes between the 1920s and the 1970s.
Lead was especially common among cities that have a long history, such as London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Antwerp, when they installed their water pipes in the early days, and some lead pipes have remained in use in these cities today, Ko said.
Citing information published by the US Environmental Protection Agency, Ko said that people can use tap water to shower or flush toilets after they have not turned on the tap for six hours or longer, to reduce lead concentrations in the water.
Also, people who are concerned about being exposed to lead-related health risks should avoid drinking from, or making food with, electric water boilers, he said.
The department has replaced lead pipes spanning 424km in the Greater Taipei area over the past decade and the remaining 157km of lead piping would be replaced with stainless steel pipes within three years, Ko said.
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
MUCH-NEEDED: After China demonstrated its capabilities to deploy vertical launching systems, Taiwan needs air defense systems such as NASAMS, a defense expert said The US’ approval of exports of three advanced air defense missile systems to Taiwan signified NATO’s goodwill toward the nation, a Taiwanese defense expert said. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Friday announced the US$1.16 billion sale of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) and the US$828 million sale of AN/TPS-77 and AN/TPS-78 radar turnkey systems. The NASAMS is a network that uses ground-launched Air Intercept Missile (AIM)-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to intercept hostile aircraft, drones and cruise missiles. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), director of defense strategy and resources at the state-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said