Taipei is suspending all use of powder and dust products at public events and is considering a general ban on all combustible powders and dust products, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
The comments were in response to reporters’ questions on Ko’s stance on the matter after Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) announced the temporary suspension of the use of colored powder in public events while safety issues are investigated.
A dust explosion on Saturday at Formosa Fun Coast in New Taipei City started a fire that injured hundreds of people, officials said.
Photo: Huang Chieh, Taipei Times
Ko made the statements at a lunch hosted by Democratic Progressive Party Legislative Yuan hopeful Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) in Tainan’s Yongkang District (永康).
Suspending the use of a product after an emergency before looking into what can be done better is standard operating procedure, Ko said, adding that if the use of powder products is allowed in the future, they must be noncombustible.
Separately, Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Derek Chen (陳金德) said that while he had prohibited the use of colored powder during his tenure as head of the municipal government’s Environmental Protection Bureau two years ago, it was over environmental concerns.
Photo: Huang Chieh, Taipei Times
Significant support in 2013 for a “Color Run” in Taipei and Taichung led to plans for one in Kaohsiung last year.
However, the bureau’s decision led to its cancelation.
In light of Saturday’s incident, applications for events in Kaohsiung that would use colored powder will not be approved, Chen said, adding that private events should not use such powders to improve safety.
Chen said Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) had spoken with New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) about the issue and pledged that Kaohsiung was prepared to aid patients.
Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and the E-Da Hospital had taken in three patients who were transferred from northern Taiwan, Chen Chin-te said.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
New Taipei City prosecutors have indicted a cram school teacher in Sinjhuang District (新莊) for allegedly soliciting sexual acts from female students under the age of 18 three times in exchange for cash payments. The man, surnamed Su (蘇), committed two offenses in 2023 and one last year, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. The office in recent days indicted Su for contraventions of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例), which prohibits "engaging in sexual intercourse or lewd acts with a minor over the age of 16, but under the age of 18 in exchange for
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS