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
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to