Although cigarette sales were reduced by 13 percent last year, some indoor establishments, particularly Internet cafes, still need to improve their anti-smoking efforts, an anti-smoking group said yesterday.
Yau Sea-wain (姚思遠), president of the John Tung Foundation, said that while the problem of secondhand smoke had been curtailed since a smoking ban targeting indoor public spaces and workplaces took effect in January 2008, the foundation still reported 1,043 violations of the ban over the past year.
Of those violations, cases involving Internet cafes topped all other indoor establishments or workplaces, Yau said.
You Po-tsun (游伯村), a Bureau of Health Promotion official in charge of public health education, said a survey based on 650,000 visits by local health bureaus to indoor public areas over the past year had confirmed a decline in both smoking and secondhand smoke.
The survey found secondhand smoke in public transportation facilities and indoor establishments, including roofed transportation stations, KTVs, Internet cafes and comic-book stores, had dropped 50 percent, while household secondhand smoke fell by more than 20 percent.
Citing a Bureau of Health Promotion estimate, You said 1.18 billion packs of cigarettes were sold in Taiwan last year, down 13 percent from 1.36 billion in 2008.
Major violations of the public smoking ban over the past year included a Kaohsiung company selling cigarette packs containing promotional picture cards, which drew a fine of NT$5.2 million, and a person in Tainan selling cigarettes online, which drew a fine of NT$8 million.
A Taipei night club was fined NT$5 million for promoting cigarettes on its premises, the Bureau of Health Promotion said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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