Two traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and a supplier are to serve jail sentences after dozens of people fell ill from ingesting toxic metals, the Taichung District Court announced Friday.
The Taichung court said that Chinese medicine practitioner Lu Shih-ming (呂世明) was sentenced to jail for seven years and six months, while fellow practitioner Hung Chang-hung (洪彰宏) was sentenced to seven years and two months, with Ou Kuo-liang (歐國樑), head of the Chinese medicine supply company Hsin Lung Medicine Co, receiving a six-year sentence after they were all found guilty of violating the Physicians Act (醫師法).
The case gained attention after former Taichung City Council speaker Chang Hung-nien (張宏年) and members of his family were diagnosed with lead poisoning and hospitalized for a month in August 2020. They all fell ill after taking a traditional Chinese medicine prescribed by Lu, who is also known as Lu Chih-lin (呂志霖).
Photo: Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
Chang and three others, including his son, the incumbent Taichung City Councilor Chang Yen-tung (張彥彤), had been taking Lu’s prescribed Chinese medicine when they started to develop abdominal pains, which caused them to seek medical help.
In 2020, Taichung’s Health Bureau tested Lu’s prescription, and found that it contained excessive levels of lead and mercury.
Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office found that Lu had added cinnabar, a red form of mercury sulfide, and minium, the naturally occurring form of lead tetroxide, into his Chinese medicine prescriptions, which led to 38 people being diagnosed with lead poisoning, including a child under the age of five.
Meanwhile, four members of another family who had taken traditional Chinese medicine for over two years were also found to have high levels of heavy metals in their blood. These medicines had been prescribed by Hung, leading to his inclusion in the 2020 probe.
Law enforcement officers subsequently carried out searches at Lu’s Sheng Tang Chinese Medicine Clinic, Hung’s Jin Fu Chinese Medicine Clinic and Ou’s Hsin Lung Medicine Co.
The investigation found that both doctors and the supplier had violated pharmaceutical laws by using cinnabar and minium.
Hsin Lung Medicine Co, on the other hand, was fined NT$800,000 (US$25,056) in Friday’s sentence and had its medical license canceled by Taichung’s Health Bureau in 2021.
Lu and Hung also had their Chinese medicine licenses revoked in 2021.
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