Members of the arts and humanities community, along with parents and children in Halloween costumes, made an appeal in front of the Presidential Office Building yesterday for the government to implement air purification measures.
“We hope the government will put into action measures that would allow our future to be realized in an environment with clean air,” organizers Ko I-chen (柯一正) and Wang Hsiao-ti (王小棣) said.
Wearing a homemade gas mask, a child from Yunlin County, Lin Hsiao-chuan (林小川), said he wanted to tell President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) not to allow the construction of more factories and to stop the expansion of existing factories.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
“It is easy to see that there is severe air pollution because the mountaintops are covered in smog,” Lin said.
Lin added that he hoped Ma would give an executive order for all factories to install purifiers in chimneys to ease air pollution.
A child from Changhua County, Yang Tsu-ching (楊子慶), said he wanted fresh air so he could grow up healthy.
Yang said he could smell odd odors when he was at home and he was often sick, adding that he often coughed up phlegm.
Yang also performed a song that he wrote to express wishes to protect his right to clean air.
Ko, with a homemade gas mask, said that in recent days the air quality has been extremely bad, adding that it has become a trend over the past few years that air quality plummets in autumn.
The government should fix the problem once and for all, Ko said.
Wang added that the public should be more wary of the issue rather than thinking that it has nothing to do with them.
Public Television Service (PTS) show host Chen Hsin-tsung (陳信璁) also attended the event, saying the government should not make the younger generation suffer the effects of air pollution.
“The government should not blame everything on China and say that it cannot implement air quality controls,” he said.
Event organizers said they not only sent their petition into the Presidential Office, but also to all presidential and legislative candidates.
“We should all work together and be willing to work toward cleaning the air,” they said.
The Environmental Protection Administration yesterday said central and southern Taiwan would continue to see poor air quality over the weekend, as there is no wind blowing.
Southern municipalities and counties could be the hardest hit, with the key indicator of fine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) expected to hit the hazardous level 8 yesterday.
The agency said both central and southern Taiwan would see level 7 pollution today, but air quality should be fair in northern Taiwan, where rain is forecast.
A level 10 pollution reading indicates that PM2.5 concentrations exceed 72 micrograms per cubic meter and are considered extremely high, but readings above level 7 are deemed severe enough to cause physical discomfort and health problems, the agency said.
The agency advised elderly people living in affected areas, and those with lung or heart problems, a persistent cough or discomfort around the eyes, to avoid outdoor activities, adding that people with asthma might also need to use their inhalers more often.
Additional reporting by CNA
A recently discovered supernova is the brightest and closest to Earth identified in the past decade, and can be observed with basic equipment, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said on Wednesday. The supernova has an absolute magnitude of 14.9 in luminosity and is in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) about 21 million light-years from Earth. It was discovered early on May 20 by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, who immediately reported the finding to the International Astronomical Union, the museum said. The supernova was designated SN 2023ixf following the astronomical naming conventions for supernovas, it added. The museum said that it observed
Tropical storm Guchol is moving in a northeasterly direction off the east coast of the Philippines and will not hit Taiwan, but will impact local weather starting on Friday, the Central Weather Bureau said Thursday. The storm would bring a low-pressure system northward toward the vicinity of Taiwan, forecaster Chao Hung (趙竑) said. Northern Taiwan will see intermittent rain showers in the morning, and thunderstorms in the afternoon on Friday, he said, adding that rain would be heavier on the east coast and in the central-southern mountainous areas. Rainfall would continue into Saturday, and would spread throughout Taiwan proper, he
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
A man was arrested in Hsinchu on Saturday on suspicion of filming women in the women’s washroom of a shopping mall in the city, local Chinese-language media reported on Thursday. The man was arrested at around noon on Saturday when a woman using a stall in the mall’s washroom noticed a cellphone being held above her from the neighboring stall, reports said. The woman ran out of the washroom and yelled to her husband to help her, after which the suspect – who was dressed as a woman – attempted to flee, but was subdued by other men until police
RSS