The Consumer Protection Committee yesterday said that 93 percent of car lighter adapters, which draw electricity from car cigarette lighters to power electronic devices, failed the committee’s quality and label inspections.
The committee randomly inspected a total of 15 products, with prices ranging from NT$70 to NT$790, sold at wholesale stores, hypermarkets, autoparts stores and online stores, but only one product, by Fujitsu, passed all the inspections, the committe said.
Senior consumer ombudsman Wang Te-ming (王德明) said that only four products passed the power, limited power source, temperature, fire resistance and anomaly tests, adding that only two products passed the inspection on product labels.
“Four products reached abnormally high temperatures during the tests, which can result in melting or burning,” Wang said. “The tests also found that 11 products contained unqualified fireproof plastic material that failed to meet the national standard.”
“Plastic parts melted and burned a hole in the device,” ombudswoman Chang Ying-mei (張英美) said of one product, adding that a component on the circuit board of another product exploded during one of the tests.
Wang said that the adapters often have splitters or USB ports, allowing many devices to be plugged in at the same time, adding that most companies do not clearly label the total voltage and separate voltage for each port, so consumers risk electrical overload.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A mountain blaze that broke out yesterday morning in Yangmingshan National Park was put out after five hours, following multi agency efforts involving dozens of fire trucks and helicopter water drops. The fire might have been sparked by an air quality sensor operated by the National Center for High-Performance Computing, one of the national-level laboratories under the National Applied Research Laboratories, Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters said. The Taipei City Fire Department said the fire, which broke out at about 11am yesterday near the mountainous Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) Recreation Area was extinguished at 4:32pm. It had initially dispatched 72 personnel in four command vehicles, 16
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