The Control Yuan has asked the Ministry of Environment and the Kaohsiung City Government to review and adjust their use of pesticides in mosquito control.
The issue stemmed from a complaint Kaohsiung City Councilor Chung Yi-chung (鍾易仲) received in 2023 saying that the city government’s Department of Health had reduced the dilution ratio of mosquito pesticides by 30-fold in its effort to prevent dengue fever — a high concentration that could harm human health.
The department at the time said in response that the dilution ratio had remained unchanged over the past two decades.
Photo: Taipei Times
The complaint was forwarded to the Control Yuan, which on Wednesday last week reviewed and approved the investigation results of its Committee on Social Welfare and Environment Hygiene Affairs.
Control Yuan member Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) on Sunday said the city government was found to have adjusted repellents’ dilution ratio for urgent mosquito control, as well as used an effective dose per unit area to evaluate whether its use of pesticides complies with regulatory requirements.
However, the department did not account for different tools and contexts of their implementation, and part of its repellent use might be excessive based on specialists’ calculations, Chi said.
The city government should apply mosquito repellents within the suggested dilution ratio determined in the Executive Yuan’s dengue-control meetings, she said.
In the Guidelines for Dengue/Chikungunya Control, the Centers for Disease Control recommends that local governments use chemical space spray solutions, such as ultra-low volume spraying or thermal fogging (including smoke bombs), to control adult mosquito populations, she said.
The Control Yuan’s investigation found that most local governments used thermal foggers to apply pesticides used to kill adult mosquitoes to control dengue fever, while power sprayers are the most recommended tool on the product labels of repellants approved by the environment ministry, Chi said.
Only 7.19 percent of repellant products specify that thermal foggers can be used, but current practices in dengue prevention are markedly different, she said.
Therefore, the ministry should address local governments’ noncompliance with product labeling requirements for mosquito repellants, she said.
It should also establish more explicit guidelines on the use of different tools for local governments to properly administer pesticides used in dengue fever control and prevention, she added.
Additional reporting by CNA
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
A magnitude 6 earthquake last night at 9:11pm struck off northeastern Yilan County, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The earthquake’s epicenter was located in waters between Toucheng Township (頭城) and Turtle Island (Gueishan Island, 龜山島), about 22.1km northeast of Yilan County Hall at a depth of 112km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Yilan’s Dongshan (冬山) and Nanao (南澳) townships and Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義), where it measured 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. It measured 3 in other areas of Yilan and Taipei, as
RSS