A coalition of labor and environmental groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to demand that the government pass laws requiring factory owners to inform the government, fire departments and area residents of hazardous chemicals stored at their factories.
The protest began an hour after the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee began a meeting to review current policies on chemicals control and disaster prevention in the wake of last month’s fire at a Chin-Poon Industrial Co factory in Taoyuan that killed six firefighters and two Thai employees.
Representatives of the National Association for Firefighters’ Rights, the Migrants Empowerment Network in Taiwan (MENT), the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance and other groups called on the government to increase protection for firefighters, people living near chemical factories and the environment.
Photo: CNA
Last month’s fire took a heavy toll on the Taoyuan Fire Department because the firefighters were given limited information on the hazardous chemicals stored at the factory before going inside, association advisor Cheng Ya-ling (鄭雅菱) said.
“Although the Ministry of the Interior has promised to increase inspections of factory chemicals, it has not explained how it could possibly do so given that fire departments nationwide face a personnel shortage estimated to be at 50 percent,” she said.
The majority of firefighters are overworked, given 360 to 480 hours a month with a schedule of “a 24-hour shift every other day,” or “a 48-hour shift after every rest day,” she said.
“How could the government carry out more safety inspections without further overworking them, especially in areas with lots of factories such as Taoyuan and Hsinchu?” Cheng said.
Besides finding ways to improve factories’ management of their chemicals, the government should also require factory owners to inform fire departments of hazardous substances in their factories and their locations, as well as sending personnel to assist firefighters at the scene, she said.
“Factories should be fined if they fail to do any of the above and they should be subject to criminal penalties if a fire causes deaths,” Cheng added.
Fires at factories in the past several months have killed not only firefighters, but several migrant workers, MENT representative Wu Ching-ju (吳靜如) said.
Migrant workers should not be living in dormitories connected to factories, she said.
“Those forced to live at factory complexes continue to be exposed to dangers they face at work. This also increases the risks for firefighters, who must rescue those trapped in dormitories,” Wu said.
The government must work with local communities to establish detailed criteria for determining what information regarding public hazards factories should be required to give to nearby residents, including lists of hazardous substances stored at such facilities, Green Citizens’ Action Alliance deputy secretary-general Hung Shen-han (洪申翰) said.
Residents have the right to know and the Environmental Protection Administration’s Toxic and Chemical Substances Bureau should establish a mechanism to give the public access, he said.
“I hope the government can understand what firefighters, migrant workers and residents who live near factories really need,” National Association for Firefighters’ Rights secretary-general Chu Chih-yu (朱智宇) said.
“When government officials show up for the firefighters’ memorial service on Thursday, they should come with concrete plans for reforming chemical control regulations, not vague promises,” he said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS