The legislative Sanitation, Environment and Social Welfare Committee yesterday approved a resolution that would entitle residents of six villages around Formosa Plastics’ Jenwu (仁武) plant to free medical examinations at all major hospitals in Kaohsiung, the cost of which would be covered by the company.
The committee also asked Formosa Plastics Group to commission a reputable third party, such as an academic institution, to undertake a health risk assessment at the plant.
Earlier this week, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏) said the company would be heavily fined for releasing highly toxic chemical pollutants into groundwater and failing to report the incident to the administration when it occurred in 2006.
The fine could reach NT$10 million (US$318,000), which is the equivalent of the profit earned by the plant since operations started.
The petrochemical conglomerate was guilty of not reporting a leakage of several types of toxins, including 1,2-dichloroethane, chloroethene, trichloromethane and benzene, when it occurred nearly four years ago.
Meanwhile, the committee also demanded that the Bureau of National Health Insurance amend the National Insurance Act (全民健保法) to force all Department of Health contracted hospitals to increase the number of available beds covered by the universal health plan.
The decision came in response to allegations made on Tuesday by the National Health Insurance Civic Surveillance Alliance — the nation’s biggest watchdog on the matter — that many major hospitals across the country fail to meet the requirement and that as a result patients often have to pay for beds.
At present, the law stipulates that public and private hospitals must reserve betwen 50 percent and 65 percent of their bed as NHI beds.
Lawmakers proposed an immediate amendment to raise the requirements to 85 percent and 70 percent for public and private hospitals respectively.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
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