Smoking is now prohibited at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, the hall’s management office said yesterday, after a celebrity accused it of removing trees to establish a smoking area.
The office said it would no longer permit smoking in previously designated areas, effective immediately, following a complaint a day earlier by entertainer Tai Chih-yuan (邰智源).
It also denied that trees were removed to create a smoking area, saying it cut down tall trees with brown root rot to prevent them from falling over and causing injury.
Photo courtesy of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
The soil was also disinfected to prevent the disease from spreading, it added.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the Taipei City Government would help enforce the no smoking policy.
Regarding a call by the John Tung Foundation to fine the hall for establishing smoking areas in contravention of regulations, the Taipei Department of Health said it had not received any complaints.
Although the memorial is a cultural establishment and therefore should be entirely smoke-free under the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防治法), the smoking areas it previously established did not exceed half of all outdoor spaces and were in line with regulations, Health Promotion Division Director-General Lin Hsueh-lan (林雪蘭) said.
In a statement released yesterday, Tai called on the Ministry of Culture to “do something cultural” about the issue.
He urged the ministry to put up signs in Chinese and English at the hall’s entrances stating that smoking is banned.
Responding to comments about upholding smokers’ rights, Tai suggested setting up walled-off spaces in front of the National Central Library for smokers, adding that funding for the areas should come from tobacco health and welfare surcharges.
If national sites adopt such policies, local governments would follow suit and implement similar facilities at outdoor locations, such as swimming pools or tracks, Tai said.
The law is only effective to a limit, and it is up to the public to follow the rules, Tai said, adding that a nation is powerful not just because of the vastness of its territory or strength of its military, but also because of the strength of character of its citizens.
Additional reporting by Chiu Yi-chin
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS