Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) yesterday said the government should convene a committee to look into the controversy about the likely relocation of Ciaotou Elementary School’s (橋頭國小) Syucuo (許厝) branch, as the company has doubts over the research results by the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) against FPG’s manufacturing unit in Yunlin County.
FPG’s call came after the Executive Yuan on Monday said that students at the school, which is 900m from FPG’s naphtha cracker in Yunlin’s Mailiao Township (麥寮), are to be transfered to Fongrong Elementary School in Lunbei Township (崙背), to avoid exposure to pollutants from the cracker.
The Cabinet’s decision was based on a study by the NHRI, which said urine tests conducted on students at Ciaotou Elementary School showed higher levels of thiodiglycolic acid (TdGA) — an indicator of exposure to vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) — than students in other schools.
Given that FPG’s naphtha cracker produces VCM, the main material used for polyvinyl chloride products, the company was blamed for the high TdGA levels.
“We impose strict controls on the plant’s emissions and the monitoring figures are all under pollution control standards,” Formosa Plastics chairman and president Jason Lin (林健男) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
The group has doubts about the figures and indicators used in the study by NHRI, Lin said, adding that the government should form a committee to clarify the concerns and publish the research results for further examination.
The company said the NHRI’s research results do not prove that the students’ TdGA levels were caused by VCM, as there are multiple pollutants that might lead to higher levels of TdGA.
TdGA can come from a variety of sources, including second-hand smoke, vehicle emissions and vitamin B complex, but the research excluded these factors, FPG said.
It carries out yearly examinations of the workers at the plant to monitor their health, the firm said.
The highest level of VCM that FPG has found in its employees at the plant was 58 parts per billion (ppb), much lower than the government’s standard of 3,000ppb, the company said in a statement.
People who are not at the plant would be exposed less than the workers, Lin said.
Lin said that as there are no international standards for testing VCM levels, the group hopes that the government resolves the controversy.
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