Environmental activists yesterday alleged that cellphone tower radiation contributed to high incidences of cancer in residents of Tainan's Annan District (
Research presented by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU) showed that 20 residents living within a 200m radius of a mobile phone tower in Tainan had been stricken with cancer since 2003, when the base station was erected.
"More than 1,000" residents live within a 200m radius of the tower, TEPU figures showed. Five of the 20 were stricken with leukemia, including three children, it added.
The TEPU team measured radio frequency radiation levels of up to 7000 micro watts per square meter at sites inside the homes of the sick or diseased.
In response, government official said the levels of radiation observed by the team was several orders of magnitude lower than the legal limit of 900,000 micro watts per square meter.
"We have followed the recommendations of the International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection in setting our limit," said Wu Sheng-chung (吳盛忠), deputy director-general of the Environmental Protection Agency's Bureau of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control, at a press conference held jointly by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Yu-ting (王昱婷) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋菫).
The activists replied that the government's limit was too lenient.
"China has a limit that is almost 10 times more strict at 100,000 micro watts per square meter," said former TEPU chairwoman Chen Jiau-hua (
Wang said that the planned Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) base stations have the potential to cause even more risk to the health of nearby residents.
"This is a brand new technology and we need to make sure that the Taiwanese people do not become lab rats in an experiment," Wang said.
Tai Cheng-jeng (
"Divide that by the population and you get a background incidence rate of one in 10 thousand or five thousand," he said.
While it appeared that the incidences of leukemia among those living near the base station reported by the TEPU were abnormally high, this did not necessarily mean that there was a causal relationship between the two, Tai said.
TECH SECTOR: Nvidia Corp also announced its intent to build an overseas headquarters in Taiwan, with Taipei and New Taipei City each attempting to woo the US chipmaker The US-based Super Micro Computer Inc and Taiwan’s Guo Rui on Wednesday announced a joint venture to build a computation center powered only by renewable energy. After meeting with Supermicro founder Charles Liang (梁見後) and Guo Rui chairman Lin Po-wen (林博文), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) instructed a cross-ministry panel to be established to help promote the government’s green energy policies and facilitate efforts to obtain land for the generation of green power, Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said. Cho thanked Liang for his company’s support of the government’s 2019 Action Plan for Welcoming Overseas Taiwanese Businesses to Return to Invest in
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
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