The National Fire Agency (NFA) should set an end date for the use of crystalline-free silica in fire extinguishers, New Power Party Chairwoman Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said on Thursday.
The agency has no regulations in place to control the use of the substance and verify safety data sheets submitted by manufacturers, Chen told a news conference that she held jointly with the Fire Extinguisher Manufacturing and Agent Recharging Industry Union and the Taiwan Water Resource Conservation Union.
Fire extinguisher union president Liao Wei-jen (廖偉任) said that phasing out the substance would pose no great challenge to manufacturers, as only four out of 15 companies produce fire extinguishers using crystalline-free silica.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Liao urged the agency to draw up regulations that ban the use of the substance to safeguard the health of manufacturers and firefighters.
Extinguishers using certified agents cost three times as much as those with non-certified agents, and phasing out the substance would improve the price-to-value ratio of fire extinguishers, Liao said.
NFA official Shen Yi-che (沈義哲) said that the agency on Oct. 12 sent a formal letter to authorities to step up verification of safety data sheets.
The US, Europe and Japan do not ban the use of crystalline-free silica in fire extinguishers, and Taiwan seeks to maintain the same standards as the global community, Shen said.
Chen said that the Environmental Protection Administration’s (EPA) certification standards demand that fire extinguisher agents should not contain substances that are highly toxic, have long-term effects on aquatic animals or are listed in the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals.
However, some manufacturers have not provided data on the toxicity and ecological impact of their products, she said, adding that the EPA’s review procedure was flawed.
Liao said that third-party testing providers might have intentionally delivered false results.
EPA official Wu Ling-chu (吳鈴筑) said that manufacturers did not have to prove that their products did not contain crystalline-free silica.
However, all EPA tests of fire extinguishers for the substance have shown negative results, Wu said, adding that between June and August, three companies had been inspected.
Chen said that all dry-powder extinguishers should undergo inspection, and manufacturers should deliver new data to the EPA and the Fire Extinguisher Union to verify that their products fulfill certification standards.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS