Conflicting government reports raise concerns about the safety of Formosa Petrochemical Corp plants, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) said at a news conference yesterday.
“In the past, ordinary people have trusted government tests of industrial facilities, but gradually we have discovered that the evaluations are not as on-target as they appear,” said Chen, a former Green Party member.
“Formosa Petrochemical tells us that there is no problem because it meets government standards, but government and civil society reports have reached conflicting conclusions,” she said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
She cited a Institute of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health study that showed levels of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) higher than government standards in the air at a Formosa Petrochemical factory in Kaohsiung’s Linyuan District (林園), where several measurements taken from instruments worn by employees throughout a day’s work showed levels exceeding 3,000 parts per billion.
The news conference follows controversy surrounding a Formosa Petrochemical plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮), with .students from the nearby Ciaotou Elementary School’s Syucuo branch being forced to relocate several times over the past few years after tests showed students had abnormally high levels of thioglycolic acid (TdGA), a chemical related to VCM, in their bodies.
While the discovery has drawn accusations that the factories have been leaking chemicals, Formosa Petrochemical has said that no abnormalities have been detected in government testing of plant employees, adding that the extra TdGA could be derived from sources other than VCM at its facilities.
However, Chen said that a National Health Research Institutes report said that exposure to VCM is closely correlated to high levels of TdGA in the urine of Formosa Petrochemical employees, with levels spiking sharply after employees had been at work in areas containing VCM.
Because the Environmental Protection Agency does not require testing or reporting of VCM levels, there is no way to verify that there was not a leak, Chen said, calling for new safety standards and mandatory testing of smokestacks and nearby areas.
Chang Kuo-min (張國民) — a deputy section chief in the Ministry of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration — said it was not clear whether the Institute of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health study had used the same measurement methods as his administration, which has consistently found that levels at the plants have been within legal limits.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT
RSS