The Homemakers United Foundation and the Consumers’ Foundation yesterday urged safety standards to measure levels of nitrates in vegetables and to have the checks listed as a regular item of inspection.
A few months ago, a 42-year-old woman who was a long-term vegetarian was diagnosed as suffering from acute methemoglobinemia, a form of poisoning, with medics saying she was eating vegetables that contained high levels of nitrate, the Consumers Foundation said.
Some farmers apply nitrogen fertilizer to grow vegetables faster, but when the fertilizers used are exposed to insufficient levels of sunlight, crops have difficulty performing photosynthesis and excessive levels of nitrate can accumulate in the plants, the foundation said, adding that the intake of high levels of nitrate can lead to poisoning.
Photo: CNA
Homemakers United Foundation president Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) said the EU has established safety standard levels of nitrate in spinach and lettuce, according to the difference in daylight hours during winter and summer, and so the Council of Agriculture in Taiwan should follow the example and set safety levels to protect consumers.
Consumers’ Foundation committee member and retired professor at the National Taiwan University’s Horticulture Department Cheng Cheng-yung (鄭正勇) said nitrogenous fertilizers — whether artificial or organic — can add excessive amounts of nitrate to vegetables due to insufficient light.
Long-term intake of excessive nitrates can cause negative health effects, Cheng said, adding that cooking vegetables in boiled water for two minutes can lower nitrate levels by between 20 percent to 50 percent.
Although several countries — including the US, Japan, Canada and Australia — have not set safety levels for nitrates in vegetables, the foundation urged the government to list nitrate testing as a regular item for inspection.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu
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