Members of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee yesterday urged the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to step up its efforts to curb water pollution and PM2.5 air pollution caused by petrochemical complexes.
PM2.5 is an indicator of fine particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, a “Group 1” carcinogen listed by the WHO and a major air pollutant.
From October last year to last month, the central regions of Taichung and Changhua and Nantou counties had just 10 days when the PM2.5 index did not exceed level 6 — “intermediate” according to the administration’s Web site, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) said during a committee meeting to discuss risks to the environment and public health caused by petrochemical complexes.
Highlighting the severity of the pollution, Liu said that the PM2.5 level in Yunlin County’s Douliou Township (斗六) in January last year was 54 micrograms per cubic meter of air (mg/m3) and the annual average reached 34.4mg/m3, compared with the annual PM2.5 standard of 15mg/m3 recommended by the administration.
He asked EPA Minister Wei Kuo-yen (魏國彥) what efforts are under way by the administration to counter PM2.5.
Wei said that a cap was set last year on the overall air pollution in the Kaohsiung-Pingtung air quality zone, which limits the maximum permissible amount of factories in the region.
In addition, an intergovernmental platform uniting central and local agencies, in particular central Taiwan and Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan, has been established for all related agencies to update and streamline mitigation efforts, he said.
The administration would set up 10 survey stations at the sixth naphtha cracker, 10 in the Kaohsiung Linhai Industrial Park, eight in the Kaohsiung Linyuan Industrial Park and four in the Southern Taiwan Science Park this year to record the levels of PM2.5 and volatile organic compounds.
The administration is also improving monitoring efforts on PM2.5 caused by fugitive dust on riverbeds, fumes emitted by vehicles and activities such as burning ghost money and agricultural waste, he said.
DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said an investigation by the Yunlin County Government found more than 100 pollutants in the outflow from the sixth naphtha cracker, but just 24 were controlled by the administration.
She asked the administration to redouble monitoring efforts or the pollutants discharged into the water body will likely enter the food supply chain through freshwater fish, endangering public health.
Wei said that the administration needs some time to research possible pathways whereby the outstanding pollutants enter the food supply chain, and that it would ask local environmental protection agencies to monitor these pollutants.
He said that the administration would look into ways to include the unattended substances to its list of controlled pollutants from the petrochemical industry.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Passengers aboard Korean Airlines Flight KE189 arrived in Taichung safely yesterday after a scare the previous day encountering uncontrolled decompression, which injured 13 passengers. Flight KE189 departed from Incheon at 4:45pm on Saturday bound for Taichung with 125 passengers on board. The flight was above Jeju Island when a fault in the pressurization system occurred 50 minutes after takeoff. Online flight tracker Flightradar24’s data show that the plane dropped more than 8,000 meters within 15 minutes, before it returned and landed back at Incheon Airport at 19:38pm. Thirteen passengers on board had a headache or earache due to the incident and were hospitalized. A different
China might seek to isolate Taiwan and weaken its economy through a “quarantine,” which would make it difficult for the US to respond and force Taipei to negotiate on unification, CNN reported on Saturday. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “increasingly bellicose actions” toward Taiwan have heightened concerns that Beijing would use its military against Taiwan, it said, citing a report by think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). However, China might choose to initiate a quarantine, rather than a military invasion of Taiwan, to avoid US involvement, it said. “A quarantine [is] a law enforcement-led operation to control
A new message broadcast on the Taipei MRT’s Wenhu (Brown) Line urging passengers to yield their seats to those in need, not necessarily elderly people, would be extended to other MRT lines and public transportation in the capital, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday. Chiang was responding to reporters’ questions on the sidelines of a news conference at Taipei City Hall promoting healthy walking. Several disputes over priority seats on public transportation have recently been reported, sparking debate about who qualifies to sit in them, as most of the cases involved elderly people asking young people to give up their