An air quality detection and forecast center is to open in the middle of next month, accompanied by the release of an air quality white paper, the Ministry of Environment said yesterday.
The ministry is undergoing restructuring to establish the center, with the goal of improving air quality forecasting capabilities and integrating air quality monitoring, forecasting and prevention, Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭?明 said.
Peng made the remarks at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, where Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Hsiung-fang (黃秀芳) asked him about the center’s progress.
Photo: Taipei Times
The reorganization requires administrative restructuring, such as transferring human resources, Peng said.
The ministry hopes to obtain more funds for the center as well, he added.
The center is expected to launch next month, and the changes the ministry is undergoing would allow it to respond to air quality issues more readily, he said.
In the past, forecasting air quality and responding to it were handled by different units, but the center would integrate the two functions, he said.
Speaking to reporters, Department of Atmospheric Environment Director Huang Wei-ming (黃偉鳴) said that air quality forecasting units were transferred to his department on April 10.
As monitoring operations have yet to be transferred due to their large volume and complexity, they remain in the monitoring and information department for now, but would be transferred to the Department of Atmospheric Environment at a later date, Huang said.
The department is finalizing an air quality white paper, with the goal of releasing it next month, along with the launching of the center, Huang added.
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
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
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
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS