As more tea store chains became embroiled in a pesticide scare, food safety specialists yesterday urged the public to refrain from drinking tea made from a first infusion and demanded the government step up its monitoring of pesticide use in edible products.
“There are about 70 types of environmental hormones. Among them, about 40, including dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane [DDT], dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls and plasticizers, can impede proper hormone function; increase the risk of cancer and birth defects; and cause the feminization of mammals, fish and birds,” Academia Sinica vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) told a forum on battling cancer in Taipei.
Chen said that long-term consumption of beverages made from pesticide-laced tea leaves could increase the risk of cancers. He urged the government to improve monitoring of tea farmers’ use of pesticides, and called on consumers to opt only for stores whose ingredients are proven by inspections to be free of pesticide residue.
Research has associated exposure to environmental hormones with higher risks of breast, ovarian, prostate, testicular and thyroid cancers, Chen said.
“It is worth noting that plasticizers can make one more prone to developing breast cancer, so the public is advised to avoid heating foods covered with plastic wrap in a microwave oven, regularly replace plastic containers with new ones and only put containers made from transparent glass or ceramics in a microwave,” he said.
Tan Tun-tzu (譚敦慈), widow of toxicology expert Lin Chieh-liang (林杰樑), said she conducted an experiment in which dried rose and chrysanthemum buds were first washed with cold running water for two minutes before being immersed in boiling water for three to five minutes.
“The result was that more than 90 percent of the pesticide residue contained in the buds was washed away,” Tan said.
People should not drink tea made from a first infusion to avoid consuming high levels of pesticide residue and stay away from tea leaves contaminated with DDT, as it is not water-soluble and is therefore harder to wash away, she said.
DDT was the insecticide found last month in the rose tea ingredients used by tea chain Stornaway (英國藍), a discovery that set off a nationwide pesticide scare that has widened to several other chains.
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
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