Holding hand-written cloth banners and wearing weaved straw hats and raincoats, hundreds of people paraded through the rainy streets of Taipei yesterday afternoon in a protest calling for safe neighborhoods without the threat of exposure to electromagnetic and low-frequency radiation.
People from more than 50 self-help groups and non-governmental organizations called for a safe living environment with extremely low frequency (ELF) and electromagnetic radiation exposure levels below 2mG, which is the legal limit in government offices, they said.
Yan Hsiu-lan (顏秀蘭), who said she was a victim of long-term exposure to electromagnetic radiation in Wufeng Township (霧峰) in Greater Taichung, wept as she told the crowd how ELF exposure has impacted her life.
Photo: CNA
“I have to sleep in an aluminum box every night because my head aches,” she said, kneeling on the ground.
“Let’s ask our government not to joke around with our lives. The government uses our [tax] money to protect government employees from ELF, so why can’t we be protected as well? We are victims...” she said before breaking down in tears, unable to finish her sentence.
Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華), the founder and chairperson of the Taiwan Electromagnetic Radiation Hazard Protection and Control Association, urged the government to stop using 833mG as a safety measure.
Chen said that figure is a reference level that could cause transient effects to the human nervous system, which the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection suggested as safety level for long-term (above four hours) exposure.
Other demands included providing the public with a source of inquiry when facing uncertainties; making public information about the harmful effects of ELF; amending the Environmental Protection Administration’s administrative regulation of ELF; and stating explicitly that long-term exposure to ELF above 3mG or 4mG may cause cancer.
The protesters also urged authorities to move facilities that emit electromagnetic radiation away from schools, hospitals and residential areas.
They said that electronic goods that emit electromagnetic radiation, such as mobile phones, should be labeled with a safety range and the specific absorption rate, which is the amount of energy absorbed by the body when exposed to a radio-frequency electromagnetic field.
The government should establish a system in which citizens can participate in the planning and location of ELF emitting facilities, they said.
The rally was attended by mostly elderly people, with some taking their grandchildren along. Shouting “833mG is unsafe, household safety level should be 2mG” and “I don’t want to be harmed by electromagnetic radiation,” the protesters marched through the busy streets near Taipei Train Station before arriving at Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office.
A skit showing residents crying for help while being trapped in a large fishing net was played out at the site, symbolizing the increasing threat of electromagnetic radiation.
Following a meeting between 10 representatives of self-help groups and an official from the Presidential Office’s petition section, Chen told the protesters that the official had promised to respond to their demands within a week.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS